The Escape of Haruhi Suzumiya
by Pokerface89
Summary: As the factions that surround Haruhi get more aggresive, Kyon is forced to take a more pro-active role in the conflict
1. A Smile And A Dagger

AN: This story Diverges from canon after the 9th novel. This chapter was edited on 9/26 to fix issues raised by reviewers, although the only significant re-writes are on the last page.

**The following is a partially de-classified exempt from the briefing of #CLASSIFIED# for his mission to the 21. century, recorded and archived by the Time Travelers Guild. Voice only. **

"Good evening and thanks for answering to our summons and attending the pre-briefing earlier, #CLASSIFIED#-kun. Please be seated."

"With a summons from you I didn't really have a choice, Umetsu-sama, why did you want to see me? And why did I get that history lesson on the 21. Century earlier? Am I being sent back to that era?"

"Yes, we have an important mission for you there, #CLASSIFIED#-kun. You are to be sent back to the 21. Century, to the city where the famous Haruhi Suzumiya attended high school. You'll be sent to the month of April of her second year at that school."

"I see…I'm honored to finally get an assignment straight from you. What is the nature of the mission?"

"You are to make contact with one of our agents already in place, Mikuru Asahina, and you are to observe and make sure the aforementioned event we just briefed you on happens as it's supposed to."

"So the theories of the significance of that particular misfortune are true? That single event really did reshape the world? We were told some wild theories about this during training but I never thought it was really all that important."

"Aren't you just filled with questions?"

"S- Sorry, Umetsu-sama, I'll hold my tongue as I should."

"Please don't, that inquisitive spirit must be one of the reasons why you where the one that was sent back."

"…I don't understand. Did you not select me?"

"I must've, we have spoken with the Asahina-san that has returned from the 21st century and she has identified you from our list of agents and says that you were there at that time and place during the event. So you being sent back was already determined. We're sending you now because she said you were at the age of 27 when she met you there. Did you not have your 27th birthday one month ago?"

"Yes I did…Now I understand…will I be sent directly to the event?"

"No, because of fluctuations in the temporal flow at that point in time, and because of Asahina-san's testimony, you'll be sent approximately 48 hours before the event. That'll be April 16, and as you know the event took place on April 18."

"And what am I to do in the meantime? As I understand it that month was a turbulent time around Suzumiya."

"You are to stay out of the conflict as much as you can, we already have other agents that actively took part in operations during that era. You are also to inform Asahina of what is about to take place, she was…made to forget it before she was sent back."

"Doesn't that seem a bit cruel? If you found some way of making her forget what she should already know isn't it better to save her some anxiety by keeping her in the dark?"

"It is, but the Asahina that returned from that time says you told her what was going to happen when she met you. I'm afraid both our hands are tied, in any case her psychological barriers prevent her from warning anyone. As for your earlier question that tragedy really did reshape the world, or rather prompted Haruhi Suzumiya to reshape it rather than scrap it and create a new one. I'm afraid that such a key event I history really can't happen any other way or else the timeline gets changed so dramatically that in all probability none of us would even be born. It has already happened, it can't be changed."

"I Understand fully and humbly accept this assignment."

"Good, now let's go over the details. If you'll look at this screen-"

***End of Exempt***

**April 16th. Wednesday Morning. North High School**

I've had a bad feeling in my stomach for a while now. If you'd see me now today you'd never think anything was out of the ordinary about me, just some bored-looking High School kid staring out the window of his classroom. Hardly worth a second look, right? I'd prefer if that where the case. Not that I would take any of my misadventures back if could, I already passed up that chance back in December, but what's happening now isn't like one of those times.

I think I can pinpoint the moment in time that things began going sour. It was that meeting with Tachibana, Sasaki, Fujiwara and Kuyou. Tachibana wishes to transfer the powers of Haruhi to Sasaki, and the other two…that sneering bastard and that weird alien…I'm not sure how they fit into this or what their agenda is but I don't like them being involved one bit. They seemed to be helping Tachibanas group for now but I can tell they have their own agenda and that bothers me to no end. The meeting ended with no questions answered and a lot of loose ends. I don't know what's going to happen next, I guess there's no way of telling. Sasaki doesn't want the powers, and I don't want to be dabbling in reality bending powers…if it ain't broke don't fix it.

My fellow brigade members haven't been much of a help. Since the meeting Koizumi has been growing more and more distant. He has been missing brigade meetings and club activities more and more and his endless elaborations have grown shorter and further between. Not that I'm complaining, mind you. The same goes for Nagato. She has still been present during meetings but I can see a hint of weariness in her eyes and I really hate seeing her like that. At least Asahina hasn't changed yet, she's still our adorable mascot.

And then there's Haruhi. Ever since her recruitment effort went down the tubes she has been acting strange, or rather more normal. Which in _her_ case is strange. She has hardly made us do anything other than spend time in the clubroom. The only other thing we've done was to go on one of her hunts for the supernatural but that was just a stroll around town. She wasn't actively searching for anything, so I wonder why she insist on dragging us around down and to restaurants. I Wouldn't really mind it so much if it wasn't always me picking up the tab. It's just that for some reason she isn't acting quite like herself, I've hardly heard her say anything outrageous for a while now. I don't think I should be complaining but out of all the things in my life I at least thought Haruhiss insanity would be one of my universal constants, along with Asahina's cuteness and Kozmuis smugness. But things are changing, I can feel it in the air and even Haruhi isn't her usual self…speak of the devil, the teenage deity enters the classroom.

"What's with that look?" She asks me as she takes her seat, the one behind mine as always.

"What look? It's nothing, I just had something on my mind," I said.

"Well, don't just sit there wallowing in bad thoughts. It's not good for you, you know!"

"Yeah…thanks for the advice but I'll wallow in whatever damn well please," I muttered. Maybe I was too harsh? It doesn't really sound like me to be so passive aggressive. I think my wallowing in my troubles has begun to get to me, but it doesn't help when the oblivious source of the troubles orders you to lighten up.

"What's with you?" She accused and scowled at me, "I'm only looking out for my members as a good leader should. I swear, you've all been acting strange."

She noticed? Perhaps she's not as oblivious as I thought.

"You noticed that to?" I asked.

"Of course I did. Didn't you think I'd notice when one of my members was missing? Koizumis attendance was gone downhill, and when he does show up he's absent minded. It's not like him, do you know what's been troubling him?"

As if it could be anything other than you…

"No, I haven't asked." I said.

"And Yuki-chan has been looking more and more tired. I think she's not getting enough sleep," Haruhi said with a hint of genuine concern.

"Yes, I noticed that to," I said, "do you know why?"

"No idea," Haruhi muttered with a scowl and crossed her arms, "But I'll have to ask her if this goes on for too long."

She then narrowed her eyes at me.

"And then there's you," she said sourly.

Me? I'm not the one acting strange here. I'm the resident ordinary guy of the brigade. What could I possibly be doing that Haruhi would find strange?

"You've been spacing out more and more during lessons, like you have something on your mind. How are your grades? I cannot allow you to be held back a year you know."

"My grades are just fine."

"There's more."

Haruhi changed her tone, she sounded more guarded. It was kind of cute but also kind of menacing to see her like that.

"You've been more irritable, _even to me_…like just now when I asked you what was with that look. And not just then, but other times to. You've been more annoyed at me, haven't you? You haven't hid it well. Why have you been acting like that?"

Huh. Guess I have been in a worse mood lately…still, I shouldn't be lashing out at her like a child. It's not like I can tell her he truth or she could ever be made to understand the situation, makes no sense to punish her for what's happening.

"It's….yes, you're right. I've been having some problems but I'm not blaming you for them," Not _intentionally_ anyway. "I'll try to behave more properly, I didn't think I was being that bad."

"You _were_ being that bad," she said, leaned back in her seat and crossed her hands. "I still think you've got some issue with me that you haven't told be about, you keep looking at me with a weird face."

What? I swear I did no such thing!

"It's not polite to stare at girls you know," Haruhi complained, "If there's something you want to do you should go for it, don't just stare. Your youth is too precious to waste it in some pointless stalling."

What is she talking about now…She gets the weirdest ideas.

Okabe-sensei ended our talk for us by beginning todays lesson. I only chough a small part of it as I was far too busy wallowing in bad thoughts despite the orders of my fearless leader. So even miss center-of-the-universe was able to tell that something's seriously wrong? Things must be worse than I thought.

Rest of school passed in a tedious blur, only interrupted by the lunch break where I spoke with Kunikida and Taniguchi while Haruhi left the classroom. Kunikida only spoke about the lesson that I hadn't been paying attention to and Taniguchi had some pointless comments about the girls in our class, and one especially pointless comment about Haruhi and I nagging each other like an old married couple. After that I went back into my own thoughts and didn't return from them until lessons ended.

"Common Kyon, let's go to the clubroom," Haruhi commanded and walked ahead without me. I followed her on autopilot as usual.

"You did it again today," She said in an accusing tone as we walked down the hallway.

"What? I swear I didn't look at you, I was staring ahead the whole time. I don't have eyes at the back of my head."

"It's not that, idiot." She shot at me, "You where spacing out again. You didn't pay attention to todays lesson at all, did you?"

My silence to that question was all the answer Haruhi needed. She stopped and turned around to face me.

"What's going on with you? I can't have you slacking of like this, you're going to get held back a year or get bad grades and then you won't get into the University that-" She cut herself off and turned a shade pinker. And she says I'm the one acting strange…

"…Tell me what's wrong," Haruhi demanded once she had gathered herself.

"…Nothing."

"You're an awful liar. Come on, spill the beans."

Haruhi stared at me with determination in her eyes, crossed her hands and tapped her foot impatiently. Couldn't this wait until we were in the clubroom and Koizumi could come up with a convincing lie for me? I really don't need to worry about my cover story on top of everything else.

"Look…it's just a bit of a rough patch. Nothing serious. Just a case of the old melancholy, I'll be fine."

Haruhi kept staring at me inquisitively, probably looking for telltale signs of lying.

"Didn't you just tell me earlier today that it was impolite to stare at people?" I asked.

"Unlike when you stare, I'm not checking you out. I'm examining you for signs of lying."

"…I'd rather be checked out than examined!"

Haruhi raised an eyebrow. "Well anyway…" She drifted off, turned around and kept on walking. "If you don't want to tell me that's fine, but I've got plans for the brigade and I need every member preforming at an 110% percent, so get over your melancholy. If that's really all that this is."

We walked on. I had managed to get her off my back for now, but am I really acting so badly that Haruhi simply can't ignore it? I need to pull myself together, I'll be useless if I keep this up.

"Maybe it's a seasonal thing, I've also been feeling a bit of melancholy since that recruitment effort turned up nothing…" Haruhi said once we were about to reach the door of the clubroom.

"Don't worry about that, I think the brigade has all the members we need."

Haruhi didn't respond to that, just walked into the clubroom. Everybody was already there. Koizumi was sitting at the table ready with some new game, Nagato was reading her book and Asahina was in her sailor uniform brewing tea.

The rest of the day was like any other day at the clubhouse. Haruhi sat at her computer and clicked away excitedly. What is she planning? I'd prefer as little insanity from her as possible for the time being. I played that new board game with Koizumi. It was sort of boring but a nice distraction. Asahina's phone suddenly rang when she was in the middle of pouring me some tea. Damned distractions

"Uh…Hello? This is Asahina."

She was quiet for the longest time after her charming introduction. She just paid lip service to whoever had called her, vaguely acknowledging whatever she was being told. Her face turned more and more apprehensive as her talk went on. Once she finally hung up she turned to Haruhi.

"Uhm….S-Suzumiya-san? I have to go."

"What? Did something happen?"

"No, It's not that, that was my…job. I have to go to work now."

"Since when do you have a job?" Haruhi said surprised.

"Uh- for a while now."

"I see, fine, just go, we're about done here anyway."

Done with what?

Asahina left in a hurry.

"With everyone else acting strange I guess it was only a matter of time before Mikuru-chan began acting weird to" Haruhi thought out loud.

"Suzumiya-san, don't you think you may be-"

Haruhi cut Koizumi of before he could finish that sentence. "Don't. I already listened to a horrible excuse from one of you, I don't need to hear any more."

Koizumi gave me a questioning look. "Is that so," he said in a volume that was clearly more directed at me than Haruhi.

"Yes, I think I'll be leaving also. There was something I was going to do before I have to be home for dinner, you people try to work your problems out. I need you all in top shape as soon as possible."

And with that declaration she left.

As soon as Haruhi had left Nagato stood up and said "I am needed elsewhere." Then she disappeared into thin air, as if she had suddenly and completely dissolved. Did I know she could do that? What could she be doing?

"Well, out of the women in our lives I'm not sure who's the best at making an exit. I think today they all made quite a memorable one," Koizumi said in his default contemplative voice. "Suzumiya-san certainly surprised me, I didn't think she'd snap at me like that, though that snap was more directed at you I think."

I didn't respond to that. I'm not stupid, He doesn't need to point that out.

"Asahina-san is also hard to ignore as usual, and you don't often see Nagato leave in such a hurry that she skips walking and simply teleports herself. From what I can tell they've been pulled into the struggles that have been building up. That is regrettable, I had hoped we here in the SOS brigade would be able to ride out the worst of the storm without getting directly involved, but of course that was unrealistic."

What's he talking about now? A storm? So my gut feeling was correct, something is going on!

"What are you talking about, explain," I demanded.

"Kyon-kun. If you don't mind me asking , have you noticed anything strange or unusual these past few days?" He asked like a teacher that already knows the answer would ask a student.

"No, nothing unusual by our standards at least. I've had this feeling that things were about to take an ugly turn but I haven't seen anything happen yet. Why do you ask?"

"You haven't noticed anyone following you, or anything out of the ordinary around the sschool or at your home?"

"I don't know...I haven't really been paying a lot of attention to my surroundings lately I guess. I've been sort of absent minded. Are you telling me I should have?"

"It's never a bad idea to observe your surroundings. However, I was just wondering if you had noticed," Koizumi said.

Why must I always feel uneasy when that boy speaks? What could I be missing in my surroundings?

"Noticed what? Is there someone following me?"

"Yes. For a while now we've been monitoring you," Koizumi admitted, "I apologize for not telling you earlier but I just recently got a permission to fill you in."

What. What kind of a violation is this? I don't care how big or important this organization is, they have no right to be following me. Why would they even want to? I'm just an ordinary high school student. Plain old Kyon, associate of Time travelers and Aliens, target of mysterious Organizations and the subordinate of a Reality warper.

"I can tell by the look on your face that I need to explain myself," Koizumi said with his foxlike smile, "When my organization learned that our rival group wished to transfer the powers of Suzumiya-san to Sasaki-san they were quite unnerved. Our policy to let sleeping gods lie, like you put it yourself back when we first spoke, will not hold easily if other groups with other agendas have developed an interest in Suzumiya. We tightened the security around Suzumiya and picked up on that she was being watched."

"Watched?" I asked, "By Tachibana's group?"

"Yes. It also seems that you've become a person of interest to Tachibana's faction, as you are a key factor in their plans. We've caught them monitoring you on a few occasions."

For some reason, the mental image of Tachibana standing with binoculars in the middle of the street outside my bedroom in the dead of the night flashed in my mind. I need to watch less television.

"Monitoring me? But why!" I asked, unnerved by this blatant violation, "I don't have any special powers! I'm not a member of faction or anything!"

"They monitored you presumably to establish your habits, your routine and your general profile," Koizumi explained.

Chills when down my spine when I thought of the next obvious question.

"Why? What are they going to do with that information?"

"We don't know yet."

That got to me. That guy always knows how to push my buttons. Wait, Poor choice of words on my part. He just rubs me the wrong wa-…never mind.

"What! Aren't you supposed to be good at this intrigue stuff? Now you tell me I'm being watched by two different groups and you can't even tell me why?"

"I cannot tell you how they intend to use the intel they've gathered on you. As for why you're being watched, Is it not obvious? It's because of you being a key to the transfer of power and possibly due to your significance to Suzumiya-san."

"It's…what would they know about my significance to Haruhi."

"There are a few ways they could get data they could use to speculate on your relationship with Suzumyia-san. Maybe they placed an agent in the school or got to the intel that we have on you." Koizumi looked into the distance and sounded distracted as he went on, "Or maybe they just paid attention when they were monitoring you."

Wonder what he meant by that.

"I'm telling you this now because we've detected more activity from our rivals in this town. We suspect they're planning something," He said with uncharacteristic wariness in his voice.

"What do you mean by activity?" I asked, although some part of me really didn't want to know the answer to that question.

"Based on our intel, they have more resources allocated and more personnel active in this town than they did before, that means more money flowing this way and more communications intercepted in case you were wondering. We also suspect they've even placed agents into the school and near your home and Suzumyias home. They may have even activated some sleeper agents that may have been planted a long time ago."

"From what we know about their motives and their means they may attempt to influence you or provoke some response from Suzumiya-san. We're not sure just how far they'll go but the worst case scenario here is that they'll attempt to abduct or incapacitate Suzumiya-san and force you to transfer her powers. My organization has an entrenched position in this town and it will be difficult for them to attempt anything of that nature. However, our observations of them suggest that they have access to more resources, money and manpower than us and they operate with an opportunistic policy. We need to stay alert."

I stood up and began pacing slowly and aimlessly around the clubroom. So there has been some secret war going on right in front of me. I'm not sure how to react to that. Isn't it every schoolboys dream to become the center of a sinister plot and get a chance to become a hero? Not this schoolboys, I've had enough excitement for the rest of High school and beyond. Interesting situation or not, nobody likes feeling threatened.

"So what are you guys doing about this?" I asked after some pointless pacing.

"I'm not allowed to give you any details," Koizumi said like he sincerely regretted not being able to tell me everything. "I will say that our strong position in this town makes our lives easier. We've been working on pre-empting them and generally distracting and sidetracking them. No major violent confrontations so far, but a few short skirmishes and fistfights. No serious injuries have occurred. We've been relatively successful in our campaign but such work does wear down our resources and they have managed to chip away at our position somewhat while strengthening theirs. They simply have more resources to allocate and time is not on our side."

I stopped in front of the window and stared out. Damn it Haruhi, you have a magnetism that works only on trouble and teenage boys. Perhaps we wouldn't be having this discussion of you liked one more and the other less…but I digress.

"What about Asahina and Nagato? Do they know? Do you know what they're up to now?"

"That's another complication. We've been working with the IDSE on the intelligence front due to our common understanding that...volatile factors around Suzumiya are undesirable, but as our rivals have aligned themselves with the Domain, another Data entity, that puts the IDSE in an awkward position of assisting us and at the same time avoiding making any direct move against our Rivals. The Domain appears to be operating according to the same philosophy, though it's difficult to tell what they're up to as you might image. The data entities seem to prefer belligerent yet somewhat peaceful co-existence."

A strange feeling came over me. I'm used to having the full support of Nagato once trouble comes so I really don't like the idea of her being held back by some power politics. She shouldn't have to give up her free will over this. Although I'm glad the data entities aren't openly fighting and putting her in danger.

"And the time travelers?"

"It's safe to assume that they already know," Koizumi gave a mocking smile, "As this has already happened from their perspective."

"We used to work more closely with the Time travelers but in the buildup of this predicament they've become less helpful. They've refused to assist us in some operations and denied us information we needed on the grounds of it being classified. They appear to be working on their own agenda and it would seem it no longer fits our agenda as well as it used to."

"Some people in the organization have said that this is just their way of making sure these events happen as the time travelers believe they should. Others have said that operating that way makes them untrustworthy as what they believe is supposed to happen may not be in our favor. For the time being the Time travelers help is more of an asset than a burden but they still are something of a wildcard."

I backed away from the window. Felt naked standing there, for some reason. All exposed and vulnerable with Tachibana's binoculars locked on me.

"So what's the plan? What are we going to do?"

"There is nothing that's expected of you other than to continue to watch over Suzumiya and contribute to her stability. To that end I must suggest that you try not to bicker with her so much. Be warned that you may get dragged into the struggle and be forced to face some conflict before this is over, but you don't need to seek trouble."

"We're just going to stay here while they circle around us?" I asked in disbelieve.

"What would you have us do? Relocate you somewhere? Our options would be to transport you somewhere hidden where they can't find to you or somewhere more secure where they can't get to you. If we decide to transport you to a hidden location only a single slip in our intelligence network would have your enemies finding you in a location much less secure than you are in this town. If we decide to transport you to a more secure location the resources needed to secure that location would pull away from your current security and have us spreading ourselves thin and you might not even be as safe there as you are now."

Koizumi took a breath and rubbed his temples. Then he put his smile back on and rambled on.

"It might come to that but at this point we believe you are safest here."

"So…what do I do? I can't help but to feel a little helpless here."

"Just keep your eyes and ears open, and notify me if you see anything out of the ordinary. You've shown resourcefulness in the past and we have faith in you."

My fears have just been confirmed. That meeting at the coffee shop was only the beginning. Mindlessly following Haruhi around has brought me straight between a rock and a hard place. But honestly, what else did I expect sticking with her would bring me?

"I'm afraid I have to leave you now, but rest assured you are quite safe here and at your home," Koizumi said and proceeded to walk out the door, leaving me alone in the clubroom. What's wrong with him? Explaining all of this to me and then telling me not to do anything and promptly leaving me alone. I feel like I need to do something, talk to someone. Someone other than Koizumi. Nagato and Asahina are busy, apparently…Can't talk to Haruhi…

Wait, what about Sasaki? Koizumi hardly mentioned her. Is she aware of what's going on? Couldn't hurt to talk to her, might even be able to help her or she me. I picked up my phone, luckily Sasaki and I exchanged numbers shortly after reconnecting. It still feels kind of awkward to call her out of nowhere but I think I have a good reason to check up on her now.

As I was scrolling through my contracts to find Sasaki's number a thought occurred to me. Is there any chance the factions that are surrounding us have our phones wiretapped? I'll just arrange a meeting with her and try to sound vague in case we're being monitored. I called her number.

After a few rings Sasaki answered.

"Hello, This is Sasaki."

I introduced myself using my proper name, strange how she's the only one I talk to that still uses that forgotten name.

"Ah, this is a pleasant surprise. Has something happened?"

"No…not exactly."

"How rude of me," Sasaki said with a motherly tone that fitted so well with her soothing voice, "You call me out of the blue and I assume you have some specific reason. So this is a courtesy call?"

"I guess you could call it that."

"How touching, I hadn't realized we had progressed so far that you could finally call me without a specific reason. I'm glad."

"Uhm…I guess we have. Are you doing well? Is everything…okay?"

"Everything is fine, beside the lingering threat we left unresolved after our meeting with my friends the other day. All that talk of omnipotent power, aliens, espers, time travelers…It's a lot more excitement than I'm used to."

What excitement is she talking about? We just talked during that meeting…Sasaki and I have two different standards for excitement, Haruhi has skewered my scale of excitement.

"Yes, It's kind of uncomfortable to leave that hanging over our heads…but listen, I was wondering if we could meet anytime soon. I'd like to talk."

"But aren't we talking now? Or is this something we can't talk about over the phone?"

"I would prefer to talk to you in person, are you free anytime soon?"

"I'd like that, but I hope you're not trying to rush ahead into anything by insisting on meeting me in person, as I happen to like the pace we're on. I'm not available today but I might be tomorrow. Can I call you when I know more?"

"Sure, I'll be looking forward to it."

"So will I, but you called at a bad time so I'm afraid I must say goodbye now."

"Alright, Goodbye."

"I'll try to call you soon," Sasaki said and hung up.

That went well, I don't think we're in any imminent danger so it can't hurt to meet tomorrow instead of today. I think Sasaki might misinterpret if I'd called her and demanded to see her right now anyway.

After that phone call I began my walk home but before I even got through the schoolgate my phone rang. I didn't recognize the number. I answered and introduced myself using my proper name for the second time today. Better not make a habit out of it, people might get confused.

"Good day, I'm Kyouko Tachibana," my caller introduced herself.

"The Kidnapper?" I said. What the hell does she want?

There was a short pause at the other end of the line, then a heavy sigh.

"Well at least you remember me…I'd like to apologize for that incident again."

She sounded sincere enough but I really wasn't in the mood to accept her apology. Can it be a coincidence that she's calling me right after I called Sasaki? Did she listen in on our conversation?

"I'm not going to forget you any time soon after what you did, what do you want?"

"This might be a bit abrupt but I'd like to meet you," Tachibana said, trying to sound determined.

Suddenly I have a feeling of déjà vu…didn't I just have this same discussion, but with Sasaki? And meeting with Tachibana…though I guess avoiding her isn't going to solve anything. At least it hasn't yet...but…

"You do realize this sounds like a trap? Especially with your history," I accused.

"We'll be in a public place, I'm afraid not even us espers are above the law so in a crowd you're safe."

"Well if there are plenty of people around…when do you want to meet?"

"I was wondering if you were free now? There are plenty of people around here, you know that café where we had our meeting? Can you meet me in front of that now?"

**April 16th. Wednesday, around five o'clock. The Café**

I was standing in front of the cafe where Tachibana Kyouko had asked me to meet her. With all the paranoia Koizumi has been inspiring in me I couldn't help feel a little vulnerable meeting with the enemy like this. I suppose I'll be harder to kidnap than sweet little Asahina-san, so there's that consolation. Unless Tachibana brings reinforcements.

As I scanned the street for suspicious-looking burly men equipped for abductions I noticed Tachibana walking towards me a small distance from me. I couldn't help but notice her bobbing pigtails. Not as good as a solid ponytail but the two dangling pigtails where a definite example of synergy. Speaking of synergy, that skirt is rather short and those legs…wait, quick, she's right in front of you, stop staring at her legs and look up.

Tachibana gave a pleased smile and cocked her head.

"Hello, Kyon-kun, glad you would see me."

Bad choice of words after my blatant staring.

"You came alone?" I asked.

"Yes, just like we agreed. You're alone as well?"

"Me? Yes, not like I'm a member of any of these factions. I'm just some High school student caught between a rock and a hard place."

She gave a warm but forced smile back and nodded.

"So, Tachibana-san, where do you want to talk?"

"I don't know," Tachibana said cheerfully, "Where do you usually take girls on a date?"

"This is _not_ a date. This is a shady meeting that should be taking place in a dark alleyway or a hidden passageway. Absolutely nothing like a date."

"So you want to take me to a dark alley? My, that's awfully forward of you!" she teased.

"What? I didn't…don't say that."

Tachibana chuckled. She was _awfully_ pleased with herself.

"I was thinking we could take a walk, I'll lead?" Tachibana said and took two small steps backwards, hinting me to follow.

"Sure, but if anything looks like an ambush for an abduction-"

"I already said sorry about that," She interrupted, some of her cheerfulness fading. "But we got more important things to talk about."

I think I can see what's coming now. As I walked with Tachibana, a step behind her but not side by side, I could see she had a slightly troubled look on her face. One that people have when they're picking their words carefully.

"I think you should reconsider transferring Suzumiyas power to Sasaki."

She could've phrased it better than that…something else troubling her?

"Is that all you have to say? I thought we already had this discussion," I said without hiding my frustration.

"And you still don't seem to understand!" Tachibana pleaded, "someone like Suzumiya should never have powers like that. She'd be troublesome enough without the ability to _alter reality._"

Actually, it's kind of hard to argue with that.

"She hasn't harmed anyone yet, you I'm not so sure about," I retorted.

I've had this discussion before and it doesn't get any less annoying. Why do they come to me to ramble? Something about me being the King to her queen in some bizarre kind of a Chess game…I don't get it.

"Haruhi has also calmed down a lot since that infamous closed space incident, and has become more grounded in reality. She may still be a pain but she's not dangerous," I defended out of obligation to at least have a conversation.

"But she is dangerous! How can you not see it! That…that…control freak just has to decide one day to alter reality for whatever reason she thinks is good enough!" Tachibana's voice carried a tone of accusation along with her plea.

"I'm telling you, she's not as bad as you think, and you just don't know what's going to happen if Sasaki gets these powers. Maybe they change when the holder is aware of them. And I have no guarantee that a transfer wouldn't harm either of them. Has Sasaki even consented to the transfer?"

My voice didn't sound as calm as I would've liked it do to, and Tachibana didn't seem to have a response to that. I think we both knew we had this talk often enough. No one had a definitive answer so there's hardly any point in repeating this yet again.

Neither of us spoke for a few minutes. Both deep in our thoughts I guess. I was trying to think of a way to end this pretend-date as gracefully as possible when I noticed Tachibana was leading me to a public park. Plenty of people around so kidnapping risk was at a minimum, and the calm of the park was preferable to the noise of the street.

Once we had walked in the park for a few moments Tachibana finally broke the silence with her default cheerful tone.

"Isn't this nice? Two people from opposing sides of a conflict meet to talk and have a lovely walk in the park."

"Sure, a walk in the park is a bit better than what I thought this would be like," I admitted.

"If you're thinking about that dark alleyway then there's still time," she said with a wide smirk.

What's with this girl…

"Or would you rather not for risk of getting caught? You seem to think very highly of Suzumiya, to trust her with such powers and defend her so. That relationship must run deep."

"Don't say it like that…"

If the burly men are going to appear and take me away, please do it now.

"And all the things you've put yourself though for her sake and your brigade, I must say I wish I had a white knight like that by my side."

Tachibana giggled. That somehow sounded sinister to me. Or maybe more mischievous…-Let's stop that train of thought right there.

Seriously. I think I'll take that ambush now. Please? Any takers? I swear I won't make a fuzz.

She stopped, spun around and smiled while looking me directly in the eyes as I managed to stop just inches from her face, completely caught off-guard.

"Perhaps you have time enough for another fair maiden to champion?"

We stood like that for a few seconds as I gathered my bearings. I did not see that one coming.

"Tachibana…are you…are you flirting with me?"

"What?" Tachibana said with genuine surprise, "It took you this long to catch on?"

"I…I guess it did."

She took step back and gave me a concerned look.

"If you're this oblivious one might think you wouldn't even have noticed this from Suzumiya-san."

"Noticed what?"

Tachibana gave me strange look like my hair had suddenly turned pink, then turned around and kept walking. I followed her onwards. I was a bit further behind her this time and had a better view of her, I say with a distinct lack of a more elegant phrasing. I hadn't really noticed how slender those legs where before…no, wait, don't be that guy. Just look up…at those hypnotizing pigtails. I can't win.

"Kyon-kun, care to join me at the flea market we saw on the way here?" She asked casually.

"Uhm…I don't care where we go. But I feel we haven't really discussed all we should've discussed, or really resolved anything…I mean we were just talking in circles before but isn't there something we haven't explored yet? A peaceful solution?"

"Like what?" She said as she changed her path and walked in the direction of that flea market.

"I don't know…it's just that…You said before we are two people on different sides of a conflict. It used to look more like a stalemate to me until just recently. And now I'm told that me and Haruhi are under surveillance and these factions around us have been having small fights and might be gearing up for more."

Tachibana's mood turned strange. Part frustration, part remorseful, a hint of sadness.

"It used to me more of a stalemate. But as you've probably heard the wheels are turning. It's already a cold war and I don't think it's going to stop there."

"You're being awfully frank, Tachibana-san. Shouldn't you be more careful what you say to your enemies?"

"I guess I don't want to think of you as an enemy." The remorseful tone in Tachibanas voice was gaining ground.

"And I don't want to have enemies. I don't want this to escalate."

We were approaching the flea market. It was sort of crowded but still quiet enough for a conversation. It was filled with things that normally could've distracted me if didn't have that whole impending war hanging over my head.

"It's up to you if this escalates you know," Tachibana said. The frustrated part of her voice now pushing the remorseful part in a corner.

"What do you mean? Why me?"

"You're the key to the transfer of power, all you have to do is agree to transfer the power to Sasaki and this whole situation will defuse."

"I don't think it's that simple, and you don't even know if that would create a whole new bigger problem. Or even work."

Tachibana sighed heavily and looked down at her feet for a moment. I took the opportunity to look around. Some of crowd around us had snapped to attention at the unfolding drama, most pretending to be browsing around while still keeping their attention on us. Maybe we should've kept our voices down. My thoughts where interrupted when I noticed Tachibana had grabbed both my hands and held them at her sides, looking at me intently.

"What are you-"

"You know, even if your heart does belong to another I still can't help but to…" She teased. Her tone of her voice was actually a bit different from before, less playfulness to it.

"What? It Doesn't-…What?"

"Oh? It doesn't? Then I have a chance?"

"…what?"

"I guess I'll have to spell it out for you," she said and locked lips with me before I even realized she was getting her face closer to mine. This was not the kind of ambush I was expecting

I stood there frozen for an instant after our lips locked, staring at her closed eyes. On instinct my eyes closed as well. I was far to confused to make a conscious decision about whether to reciprocate or not. Some primal part of me made that decision for me and I reflexively mirrored her movements. I didn't really know what I was doing but based on Tachibanas hesitant and awkward technique neither did she.

After what felt like least a minute the embrace broke. When I opened my eyes I saw Tachibana staring at my chest, her arms still around me, and I couldn't make out her expression. There was a moment of silence, during which I remembered that we were at a fairly crowded flea market and apparently had attracted some attention with this surprise public display of…affection? Or something. I tried not to look at the people staring with stern disapproval in their eyes.

"I'm Sorry" Tachibana said. The sincere apology caught me by surprise.

"What for?"

"I had to do it, this has to end and we can't let you go on as if everything's fine when it's so obvious how unstable she is."

"What do mean? You're not making any-"

At that moment I realized Tachibana was now staring at something in the crowd. I looked up to see what it was.

There in the crowd I saw the all too familiar yellow ribbon of Haruhi Suzumiya, as she walked away. I only saw the back of her before she quickly disappeared into the crowd.

"You…Did you know she was there? She saw us?" I said as my mind began piecing this together.

"I did, I was instructed to make sure she saw, and she did," She said. She spoke in an attempt at a firm and controlled voice but it was obvious she was holding back some strong and conflicted emotions.

"And you...this whole scene was staged for her?" I said with slowly building anger. Being manipulated like this makes me feel violated in more ways than one.

"Yes. One kiss, the wrong boy kisses the wrong girl. That's all it took," Tachibana said, passing whatever she was feeling as anger.

"...All it took?" I repeated as the implication of that sank in. Damnit, Haruhi did look upset...was this really all the reason she needed to do something bad enough to justify taking her powers away?

"You have to make the right decision now," Tachibana said downcast. Her anger had passed quickly and whatever emotions where left in her weren't happy ones, she bit her lower lip down, closed her eyes and took labored breaths through her noise in an attempt to gather herself.

I didn't bother to find a response to that, I really can't hold an argument against a girl once they start tearing up, and in any case I had to find Haruhi. Tachibana let me go and I ran in the direction Haruhi had gone. The crowd made it difficult. After trying to spot a yellow ribbon in the sea of heads for a few moments my cell phone began to ring. It was Koizumi.

"Good day, Kyon-kun"

"Hello, I'm guessing you're calling about some sort of a major disturbance that you just picked up on."

"Why, Yes," Koizumi sounded a bit nervous though his forced demeanor, "Would you happen to know anything about that?"

"I may have French-kissed a girl in front of Haruhi."

Koizumi's smile faded so quickly it was almost audible through the phone.

"Did you say you-"

"I didn't mean to."

"…"

"Look I…I don't know what to say."

"I'm currently headed to a gigantic closed space that just appeared and is expanding at an alarming rate. The organization is throwing everything they've got at this but I suspect the final outcome of this might now be in our hands. "

"but I-"

"Talk to her, you need to calm her down and fix this. I don't have time to explain since this closed space requires my immediate attention, but I trust you will solve this," Koizumi said and hung up.

Damn it. Why did I kiss her back? Why didn't I see this coming? After all that talk my paranoia hadn't protected me from anything.

I rushed through the crowd while looking for her in all directions. She was nowhere to be found on the streets. So many people...I just can't find her. What the hell am I going to do?

"Kyon…" Said the last person I wanted to talk to right now. Tachibana had apparently composed herself quickly, even if her eyes where still red.

"I'm sorry to put you though so much just to prove a point," She sounded sincere enough but it didn't really make me any less angry.

Before I could calm down long enough to form a coherent thought, Tachibana spoke.

"We know where she is. We had her under surveillance to…you know…She went to that park we walked though before. She's at one of the benches by the pond."

That did make me a bit less angry.

"Why are you telling me that?" I asked.

"Because I don't want the world to end. You may be able to correct this…misunderstanding. The white knight always comes though even if he gets sullied." She offered one of the weakest smiles I've ever seen.

I didn't feel like making that exchange any longer and rushed into the park. I found Haruhi sitting on one of the benches. She was staring blankly into the pond. As I walked towards her I began trying to decide on what I could say. Once I reached her I still hadn't decided. I stood next to her for a minute before she noticed me. She looked up at me with an angry expression, but a different kind of angry I've seen from her before, she stared at me like I had stabbed her in the back.

"Why are you here!" She snapped at me, making no attempt to contain any of her anger.

That's a very good question.


	2. Ice Queens Inferno

**April 16th. Wednesday Dusk. Public Park.**

I stood in facing Haruhi. Her ice cold glare was piercing, and her eyes...had she been crying? Why? I knew she was possessive with her precious brigade members but wasn't this a bit too much? This wasn't like her. When she didn't have her way she got mad not sad. She's not making any sense.

„I...uhm…It wasn't..." I mumbled.

„Don't stall, speak!" Haruhi barked at me. Her voice quivered ever so slightly. Not very noticeably but still enough to unnerve me even more. The first time she had tried to re-create the world I had hardly noticed her being that upset, just frustrated. This time however was different. It wasn't hard to see that she was more than just angry.

"Don't just stand there like a moron! Say something!" Haruhi hissed at me, whatever patience she had in her gone.

"It wasn't what it looked like," I blurted out. What a stupid thing to say. It was exactly what it looked like. She saw that. A whole crowd saw that. That's just a moronic line characters in TV shows use when they're caught doing something improper, and it's always exactly what it looks like.

Haruhi narrowed her eyes at me. "Then what was it?" She asked bitterly.

"It was…She kissed me, okay? She didn't ask or even give me time to react," I meekly explained.

That was the wrong thing to say wasn't it? I didn't really feel like I had time to consider my words carefully but if this is the best I could come up with the world is doomed. Dammit!

The erupting volcano in front of me was not appeased. Her expression did change into one that didn't look familiar on her face. If I didn't know any better I'd say she looked just a bit hurt. Not that I'd know what that look of hers means, you never see her react like this.

"Don't," She said firmly, "I don't want hear that crap." She finally broke her glare at me and stared down.

Just what the hell do I say now? I need to calm her down so I can't raise my voice with her even if I want to so I can't really argue with her. So do I apologize? That seems like the thing to do, but apologize for what? Is she mad at me for getting distracted from brigade activities by meeting girls? No, she wouldn't get this upset at that. Maybe it was meeting Tachibana behind her back? That might me, but I still didn't feel like I need to do any apologizing just for that. Haruhi doesn't own me no matter how she acts towards her lowliest brigade member.

My phone buzzed. I instantly reached for it from my pocket. It was a text message from Tachibana, it read "let's not end the world over this, just play your part like you always do". That phrasing is just her going out of her way to make sure she's the least helpful she possibly can be. I didn't feel like responding to it, honestly I didn't care what she had to say now.

"Your girlfriend trying to find you?" Haruhi accused. She said the word girlfriend like she was talking about a criminal or worse.

"It's not like that, Haruhi," I pleaded.

I can't be beating around the bush in this situation. Better to ask and be a fool for a minute than never ask and be a fool forever, right? Not that forever will be a long time if I can't calm her down and the world ends. It's obvious that not knowing exactly what's upsetting her will only lead me to keep on saying all the wrong things.

"Look…I'll just be honest. I don't know why you're this upset," I said, trying to sound diplomatic.

For a second she stared at me completely dumfounded.

"What!"

Oh god she's yelling now. Why is even more angry?

She stood up, grabbed my shirt and pulled me down so my eyes were on her eyelevel.

"What do you mean you don't know! How oblivious are you! How can you not…you jerk!"

"I just-"

"Shut up!" Haruhi yelled at me, "I don't know either! Why would I be upset because of you making out with some girl you just met like a stupid hormone-pumped teenager! Like I even care!"

She pushed me back and let go of my shirt. I feel like I'm being toyed with. Stuck in a sinking ship with no lifeboat. I don't like being treated this way but the fact that she already looked very hurt, although I can't see why she'd be hurt, prevents me from responding in any remotely violent manner. I'm not one be aggressive to a girl, not when I'm the offending party at least. I just wanted this situation to pass, just wanted her to calm down. I grabbed her shoulders.

"Haruhi. Please, calm down," I said.

Yes. That'll do the trick. Crisis adverted.

"Like hell I will!" She lifted her hands and pushed mine of her shoulders. It was at that moment I noticed that Tachibana was standing just few meters away from us. Judging by the growl I heard from Haruhi I guess she noticed her to.

"Please don't be so mad at him," Tachibana said. If I didn't know how deceitful she is I'd say she sounded heartfelt.

Haruhi gave Tachibana the coldest stare I've ever seen her give anyone.

"Allow me to explain what happened. I wasn't completely honest with why I asked Kyon-kun to meet me," Tachibana pleaded to Haruhi.

Haruhi said nothing. She just kept shooting Tachibana daggers, but broke away from her death glare just long enough to shoot me a dagger or two.

"I asked him to meet with me because I wanted to talk to him but it was just a pretext. I was going to flirt with him," Tachibana explained as if she was ashamed. "I tried to but he didn't respond and when he didn't respond like I wanted to I just kissed him when he didn't expect it."

I heard Haruhi make an angry noise, and I could see she was clenching her fists. What's with her? I haven't seen her this emotional since she mistook that love letter to Nagato as being from me.

Tachibana continued her plea. "When he realized that you saw me kissing him he immediately broke away from me, got mad at me for upsetting you and ran after you, and now I can see how it is with you two."

Tachibana took a bow and said that next part with all sincerity.

"I now see my mistake. I'm sorry that I tried to steal him away from you."

Wait. Steal me away? It's…is that why she's upset? She though Tachibana had stolen me away from her? But…stolen how? I could still be a Brigade member even if I was dating, no need to be so dramatic about that.

At that moment something in my head just clicked, perhaps the severity of the situation forced my mind to look for solutions in new places or perhaps the mounting evidence just couldn't be ignored anymore. Several things went through my head. Seeing Haruhi this overemotional reminded me of when she thought I had written a love letter to Nagato. The day of the first big closed space incident the only thing I can recall her being angry about was when she caught me and Asahina borderline flirting. All those things Koizumi has been saying about me and my significance Haruhi began to make sense. The way she reacted to my chance encounter with Sasaki now made sense. And now, How she was reacting to me kissing Tachibana…all those things and more that had confused me for far too long could now be explained by one grand unifying theory. Other times I could dismiss her reactions as part of her eccentricity or possessiveness, but there really was no other reason she would react so badly to me kissing another girl.

Tachibana raised her head, "I'll leave you two alone from now on, if it's any consolation I envy you." Then she turned around and briskly walked away.

She just said that to calm Haruhi down. I'm sure of that. There's nothing to envy here. It's not that…I don't even know, I'd just rather not be here with Haruhi furious at me and probably subconsciously planning to recreate the world. At least now I think I understand her. I don't see any way out of this other than to stop acting like an oblivious idiot. Fate of the world in the balance and all that.

"You…" I began speaking but ran into difficulties picking my next and maybe final words. Can't turn into a coward now, this needs to be said. If I am to have any chance of calming her down I must confront this elephant in the room, whether I like it or not…and believe me, I don't like being put on the spot like this. But if I'm right, and I leave her with this unresolved, she'll just wallow in her frustration and we'll both end up right in that closed space again. Or worse, she'll create one without me in it to stop her.

Can't I just kiss her now and get this over with? Or do I need to be inside the closed space for that to work…On second thought, the kisses probably wouldn't cancel each other out, I don't think they work like that. I also don't think either of us is in the mood…

Haruhi kept staring at me, a mix of anger and sourness in her face.

"You…Do you…like me?" I managed to utter that phrase with all the awkwardness it carries. I feel like I deserve a medal for that. The kind of medal they give military pilots when they only give them fuel enough for a one-way trip. Blood rushed to my head, making my face feel warm and head feel slightly dizzy. There's sort of a surreal quality to moments like this when you pass a point of no return or some fundamental understanding or relationship you had gets questioned, and this is definitely one of those moments.

"Do I what?" Haruhi said stunned and her eyes widened. So at least I got to see the look of genuine shock in her face before I get wiped from existence.

"You…the way you're acting…I hadn't really thought of it before but…do you...do you have a crush on me?" I managed to drag out of me without looking her in the eyes.

Great. Just great. The world is ending, the fat lady is singing and I'm trying to prevent it by reciting lines from some daytime television teenage drama. Screw it, I don't think I have the time for a more poetic phrasing.

"What! You're telling me you hadn't…" Haruhi drifted off, and then came back with a vengeance. "You honestly all this time never even…not even when I…how oblivious are you!"

She's back to yelling, but now in a more familiar tone. Less dramatic. I think she's calming down, I guess Tachibanas appearance did more good than I thought.

"No. It didn't occur to me! Why would it?" I shot back. My voice was sharper than I would've liked but enough was enough, I'm not taking the blame for this predicament alone. She never makes any sense, she can't expect me to read her. "You always play the leader with me, treat me like a lowly member. Even when you do something nice it's always under some pretext or behind some excuse! How was I supposed to come to the conclusion that you liked me that way when you never act like a normal girl with a crush but instead a demanding boss on a crusade?"

"Can't you just take a hint!" Haruhi snapped at me "Or are you so boring to the core that a girl has to bring herself down to the level of a poorly written manga character and act like some classic case of a love stuck teenage girl just to get through to you! Is that the only wavelength you can pick up on?"

So was that 'yes' to my original question? Does she even know what she's saying now? Is she admitting to liking me or just insulting my taste in women? Or both? Does that even make sense?

"Well...Tachibana acted like a love-struck teenager and I at least noticed her intentions during the short time we spent together. I didn't even know she had any ulterior motives when she asked to meet me," I explained as calmly as I could.

"A tongue down your throat would be hard to ignore!" Haruhi growled.

"No…well yes actually, but hardly the point. I noticed her intentions before she kissed me."

I couldn't help notice Haruhi flinching slightly at the mention of that kiss. And as if my face didn't feel warm enough...at least Haruhis face has also turned scarlet.

"It was just that she acted more direct, more to the point," I tried to explain without letting my embarrassment about this discussion show too much, "To be honest I found her directness slightly off-putting, she came across as trying too hard. Still, in a way she got further along with me on that walk than the two of us have in all this time we've know each other."

That sentence was followed by the longest awkward silence of my life. Brutal honesty can have that effect. Haruhi stared into the pond next to us with a sour look on her face and her hands crossed.

"So, you're saying that you don't like that girl?" Haruhi finally said. "You've had all you wanted and now you're moving on?" Haruhis anger was fading. Fading but far from gone.

"I…No, She…She…" Well you see, she's an agent from a rival faction that manipulated me into walking into a trap and I'm not sure that dating her would be a good idea. "She's just not my type, you know? I told you I found her approach off-putting."

I noticed Haruhis posture got more relaxed and somehow the tension in the air was slowly defusing as this argument moved down from crisis-level and began to sound more like our normal bickering. Haruhi took a deep breath and spoke in a controlled matter-of-factly manner.

"And what is your type? What can get though that thick idiot scull of yours? I'm asking purely out of scientific interest, you have to be one unique specimen. If every guy is like you the human race is doomed. This whole moment makes me question how we ever got this far as a species."

"I don't know…I guess I'll know it when I see it."

I'm sure I stole that line from some old high school romance. Doesn't make it any less true, however unhelpful.

"What a stupid thing to say! Of course you know! It's your type after all! But it is as expected from someone who meets a girl and doesn't even realize he's on a date." Haruhi refocused her death glare at me. "You're going on more dates to see if you find anything you like?" she said in an accusing tone and hammered my chest with her index finger.

"I hadn't planned on it, and why does this sound like an accusation? I told you I didn't realize how you…felt, and with the way you acted towards me did little to help me. So stop blaming me," I shot at her. Does she expect me to read her mind? Even if I could read minds I'd never be able to make sense of whatever goes on in her head.

"Now you know! Through no fault of my own I care when I see you kiss other girls," She said like was trying to make it sound trivial. She crossed her arms and looked away. "and I…Aww geez…" she covered her face with her left hand as she seemed to realize what she just said.

"I'm just not…in control here," She reluctantly, "I wasn't even looking for a dumb high school romance until you had to invoke it! So fine! I guess there's no point denying it now and I'm no coward so I'll admit! I'm a healthy young woman and you're…you got my attention. That's all. Don't let it go to your head, I'm still your leader and I'm still furious at you! And don't think there won't be a punishment for you for this! You've really outdone yourself this time!"

She looked up and stared me directly in the eyes with an intense gleam in her eyes. "Now that you've forced me to admit all that, what are you going to do about it?" she said, clearly expecting an answer right now.

Suddenly I became even more aware of the fact I was speaking to a reality warper, and also to the fact that in her own weird way Haruhi Suzumiya had just opened up to me. I need to just tell her the truth, I hate how much of our relationship is built on lying to her and frankly I'm exhausted from it

"I…I don't know."

Nailed it

"I mean…I don't know right now. This is a lot to take in. I haven't…"

"Don't stall like that, Just say it already!" Haruhi interrupted crossly.

"I'm trying to."

This is harder than I thought. Just giving the girl a clear answer is the obvious way out of this but I don't really have one. It wasn't even a clear question for that matter. I'm still adjusting to this new information. The idea of being romantically involved with a girl as pretty and energetic as Haruhi is appealing in some ways but the girl has issues, part of our relationship is based on keeping stuff away from her, our situation is far from ideal with all those factions circling in, and most importantly I just don't like being put on the spot like this. It feels like anything I say now will sound forced. Maybe I can find a way to ease into this? To calm her down, save the world and downgrade this from world-ending crisis now to an epic awkwardness later. That sound like a fair trade-off.

I took a good look at Haruhi while I was composing a response. This…confrontation of ours had left both of us with limited personal space, she was still close enough for me to place my hands on her shoulders but she'd see through such a feeble gesture. I took a look to my side…the sun is setting…and we're right next to a pond, reflecting the setting sun? For someone who doesn't like High School dramas you really have a gift for stumbling into the right setting for one…

"Okay, how about this," I said with a soft voice, like a lowly diplomat presenting an offer to a head of a powerful nation. "We both go home, calm down and get some time to think on this. I promise I won't date any other girls until we've talked properly. It's just that I think you're too upset for us to have a proper talk and I'd really like to sleep on this and not say anything rash."

Haruhi scowled at me. "Why? What can't you say now that you can say later? And did you just offer me to go exclusive?"

With you it's hard not to be exclusive, my dear jealous reality warper. "I guess I did. I just want to...think about this. I think it's obvious we must...rethink things."

"You want to…go home and…rethink?" She recited like she didn't understand the meaning of the words.

"Yes…you said you didn't like acting like a character from a poorly written manga and I agree, but this whole scene looks like it was ripped directly from a cheesy love story, where the couple resolves all their issues in a single scene at the end. Everyone knows that reality isn't like that, we should just back up and slow down before we dig ourselves deeper into some convoluted drama. "

It sounds like I'm somewhat competent at this romance stuff, but that's not true. I'm just good at criticizing bad manga as I've done a lot of that in the past and all I'm trying to do is get Haruhi to slow down so now I can apply that knowledge by pointing out how these kind of scenes don't make sense. That is all.

"So…you're saying we should…slow down and find our pace?" Haruhi did not sound very angry or very sad for the first time since this exchange began. She looked like she had a lot on her mind

"Yes, that's more or less what I was trying to say," I said, relived she was finally calming down.

"And you say all this mere minutes after you kiss another girl?" Haruhi accused, not completely convinced.

She has a point. Since when am I one of those guys that does things like that? I swear I never tried to build a harem or anything of the sort.

"That wasn't my fault! Tachibana already explained how I happened, and I can promise I won't see her again." That girl has exhausted what little trust I had in her so that's an easy promise to make.

"Alright…figures your solution would be some fumbling stalling or indecisiveness but…I don't I want to hear any more of your excuses and I don't have anything more to say to you right now anyway," Haruhi rubbed her forehead like she had just gotten a bad headache. "But tomorrow you better have something more to say! Something concrete!" She pointed a finger right between my eyes. "If you're just saying this to buy time or run away I won't forgive you for acting so cowardly! Have something proper to say!"

"Yes, definitely," I agreed.

"I'm going home, see you at school tomorrow," Haruhi said resigned and turned away from me.

With that she left with what can only be described as a strut, leaving my standing there wondering just what I have gotten myself into. The sun was already going down, must be later than I thought. I began wandering aimlessly around the park to cool my head and gather my thoughts. I half expected Koizumi to call again but he didn't and I didn't feel like calling him.

I wandered around some more and then I walked home, in no hurry, and showed up late for dinner. That night I dreamt a chaotic clutter of memories and images that would give even Dr. Freud a headache.

**April 17th. Tuesday morning. School Gate.**

When I got to school the next day Tsuruya was waiting for me at the school gate.

"Kyon-kun! I've been waiting for you," she called to me and put her schoolbag down where she stood.

She sounds angry. It reminds me of that time I asked Asahina-san to expose herself to me in that alternative reality in December. I guess in that case her anger was justified. I wonder what it is now.

She walked to me and stopped maybe a meter away from me.

"I heard what you did yesterday! Haru-nyan called me last night!"

She gave me an ugly scowl.

"Haru-nyan is willing to give you a chance, but I'm I warning you that if you hurt her like that again!"

Tsuruya took a step back, turned her left hand in a fan and then made a powerful punch that stopped just an inch from my face.

"You'll be feeling my fury."

She picked up her schoolbag and ran to school.

Geez, ain't she the protective type.

I made my way to class without receiving any further threats. Haruhi wasn't in her seat when I got there. I sat down and stared blankly out the window. Time to face Haruhi today. I don't really know what I've gotten myself into or what's going to happen now. 'Taking it slow' is a relative term, and with Haruhi I'm not sure she understands the concept. Maybe today a casual greeting will do, then tomorrow we can have a 5 minute conversation about the weather, then the day after that a 10 minute talk about some TV show we saw the other day and then we just work our way from there to untangle the mess that is our relationship, if you can use that word to describe whatever Haruhi and I have. If the factions circling around us give us enough time that might work.

It was easier when we first met, when we would just talk about some random stuff and nothing needed to be this serious. We need go back to random chit-chat and then move on from there...damn it. I'm no good at this stuff. So why does the fate of the world depend on me not screwing up? As if there wasn't enough pressure on normal guys when approaching girl...Romance is difficult enough without reality being at stake and without having powerful factions surrounding you, and without the girl being as eccentric as Haruhi.

My train of thought got interrupted when Haruhi Suzumiya came into the classroom. She stopped in the doorway, looked at me with an unreadable expression, looked away and walked to her seat.

"Er...Hi," was all I managed to get through the invisible barricade of awkwardness that Haruhi and I had erected between ourselves.

"Hello," Haruhi responded nonchalantly.

I tried to sound as casual as her but failed. "So...I was thinking-"

Okabe-Sensei interrupted whatever it was I was going to say by starting today's class. Just as well, I had covered all I had planned for today. Tomorrow's agenda; the weather.

I didn't really pay attention to today's lesson, not that it was unusual for me to space out during lessons. Today I just had far too much on my mind to learn new stuff. I still had no idea what the next step with Haruhi should be, and she's right behind me expecting 'something concrete'.

The lesson passed far too quickly and before I knew it lunch break had arrived.

"So," Haruhi asked cautiously, "What were you thinking?"

"What? Oh yeah...well its-" I struggled yet again to sound casual but all that I could say was some awful mess of awkward stalling.

"Kyon-kun," Koizumi's voice interrupted me, I looked to my side and saw him in the doorway of the classroom

"Could we talk for a minute?" He said in that trademark tone of voice of his.

"I guess." I stood up. "Sorry, Haruhi, I'm going to see what he wants. We can talk later."

"Fine, whatever, just go."

She crossed her arms, pouted and looked out the window.

I walked over to Koizumi and he gestured me to follow him. He wasted no time and began his lecture once we were a few steps away from my classroom.

"I'm sorry to interrupt what I'm sure may have been an important discussion but the situation has taken a turn for the worse and I and my organization need to know what happened in the park yesterday, just as much as you need to be aware of the full extent of the situation."

"Why do I feel like there's a long speech coming? And if you though Haruhi and I were going to have an important talk why did you interrupt us?"

"I would have rather talked to you yesterday but we were quite busy as you might have imagined."

Did I just detect a hint of irritability from Koizumi? He did look worn out. Looks made life difficult for more than just me and Haruhi yesterday.

"I'm sorry for causing that mess...just how bad was it?"

"When that first closed space appeared, after your incident, it was so large that it was a daunting task when we had to take it on, and it seemed to expand as we fought against it. However, a little while after we entered the closed space it began receding. We eventually managed to close it. A few smaller ones appeared following that but nothing like that first one, even if they did keep us busy for the rest of the evening. That's why I didn't get a chance to speak with you until now."

Now I kind of feel bad.

"Again…I'm sorry," I said.

"Apology accepted, it wasn't entirely your fault," Koizumi said. Subtle emphasis on the word entirely there.

"So what happens now?" I asked.

"We are already taking steps to be better prepared for any further aggressive moves our enemies might make, and we are further securing our position the best we can. This move was definitely hostile so we're acting accordingly. Our next steps depend partially on what you have to say to us now."

"Where are you leading me anyway?"

"To the student council president. He has moved up in the organization recently and for the time being he has been put in charge of the organization agents active in the school. Now the three of us need to discuss the current situation. It will be marked as a meeting with the president as far as your teacher knows so don't worry about not making in back to class in time."

In a few moments we had arrived at the office of the president. We found him waiting for us at his desk

"Koizumi-kun, Kyon-kun. I've been waiting for you. Please take a seat."

The president sounded more serious than the other times we have met. Once Koizumi and I had taken our seats the President spoke in a grave tone.

"What have you told Kyon-kun so far?" The President asked.

"I just explained the magnitude of the closed spaces we dealt with yesterday," Koizumi answered.

"And nothing more?" the president said with a hint of surprise.

Wait, there's more? And they're so serious…I don't like this.

"I thought you would perhaps explain to him," Koizumi said to the president.

"Right," The president muttered.

The President pushed the bridge of his glasses and seemed to brace himself for something.

"Let us begin by reviewing. Sometime yesterday Kyouko Tachibana contracted you and asked you to meet with her. Is that not correct?"

"Yes…she said she just wanted to talk and I thought it could do some good to ease the tension between the groups if we just talked," I answered.

"What did you talk about?" The president asked, though he was clearly not very interested.

"Nothing important really…she wanted me to help with the transfer of power from Haruhi to Sasaki. I refused. We argued. Then there was some idle and trivial conversation. She said something about this whole mess developing into a cold war and that it wouldn't stop there."

"She wasn't lying you know," The president murmured.

"I guess not."

"You didn't think the meeting could be a trap?" he accused.

"If they wanted to hurt me they could've easily done it without asking me to meet in a crowded place."

"A fair point but you should be more careful. Now then, you were aware that Suzumiya-san has been under the surveillance of Tachibanas group for some time now? Long enough for them to establish her habits it seems."

"What do you mean? I was aware of them following her but I don't know what you mean by that last part."

"They had observed that most Wednesdays after club activities Suzumiya-san likes to go into town and browse around. We've figured that they must've had her under close surveillance yesterday and probably transmitted her location to Tachibana somehow," The President said.

"I…no, I wasn't aware of what. What are you getting at? This was not just her going rouge? Her group planned this?"

"So it seems," Koizumi said.

"They did all that just to prove a point to me?" I said in disbelieve.

"Not just to you," The president said grimly. "Where you aware that you and Tachibana where being videotaped?"

"What? No. How do you know that?"

"A video of the incident was leaked into our intelligence network. Every member and associate of the Organization has seen the tape. It includes your Kiss, Suzumiyas initial reaction, and it's time stamped so that people can see that it occurred just before a gigantic closed space appeared. There also was some manifesto advocating the transfer of power."

This took me by surprise. I was speechless while the President glared at me as if to see if I had something to say for myself. Koizumi spoke before I could say anything.

"It seems they wanted to demonstrate Suzumiya-sans instability to members of our Organization to weaken our morale and win people over to their side. We don't know yet how many have defected or are now trying to work as double agents against us but needless to say people in the Organization are quite shaken up. Few have openly supported the transfer of power now. When we thought she was stable as she'll ever be she goes off with no warning…it was quite a blow."

For a moment Koizumi and the president both remained silent while I took in the severity of the situation. This enemy group wouldn't go this far unless they were planning something. This is bad.

The President reached for two bentos that where at the end of his desk and handed them to Kozumi and me.

"You may miss your lunch break over this so please, dig in," he said as we accepted his sudden gift.

The President gave me a few moments to start my meal before he began talking again.

"During yesterdays closed space incident the expansion of the giant closed space did stop after only a few moments after it was entered by our Organization and it receded faster than they usually do. From that I gathered you did _something_ right. You need to tell us what happened between you and Suzumyia at that moment."

Koizumi spoke sincerely. "Please, we know this is personal but we need to know about her psychological status and also the status your relationship with her. This is paramount to our organization and a lot of people want to know what happened."

Isn't this just great. Not only am I in one of the most awkward situation I have ever been in and now I have to explain it at length so it can be analyzed by a whole organization. I'm beginning to think that if I'd ever go on a date with her there will be a special ops team on standby close to us.

"We…talked…" I said. "It was awful at first. She was angry and yelled at me. I think she was crying a little before I found her."

Saying these things out loud made me feel like an awful human being. Making a girl cry is one of those things I'd rather not do.

"After she lashed out at me, Tachibana found us."

"Why did Tachibana find you?" The president asked.

"Presumably she didn't want Haruhi to really recreate the world so she admitted to Haruhi that she kissed me without asking me and then apologized for trying to steal me away from her and promised to leave us alone from now on. Then she left."

The President and Koizumi exchanged glances and looked thoughtful for a minute.

"It makes sense in a way, they only wanted to prove a point not endanger us all so of course they'd try to do some damage control," The President said.

"That leaves one question. What is the current status of the relationship between you and Suzumiya-san?" Koizumi asked.

"It's…complicated."

"We figured that much," The president said, with a deadpan delivery that rivals even me.

"Please," Koizumi pleaded. "Again, I realize this is personal but for the sake of saving face we need to ensure the stability of Suzumyia-san and you are a key factor in that context. There's a lot at stake here. What happened after Tachibana left?"

Good god. I've said before I dislike being put on the spot but with Haruhi it feels like I'm always right in the spotlight, ready to make a mistake that will seal the fate of us all.

"She…Look, You know how she is. She'd kill me if she knew that I was telling you such personal stuff."

"We will not necessarily tell everyone everything, but please understand the gravity of the situation. We need to know."

"Fine. Haruhi kind of admitted that she liked me. I wouldn't say she confessed but…something along those lines. She wasn't happy about it either."

The President raised an eyebrow and Koizumis eyes widened for just a moment.

I went on to give them the abridged version of our talk. Once I was done neither of them spoke for an uncomfortably long time. This was embarrassing. As if things weren't awkward enough already.

"So," Koizumi finally said, "You and Suzumyia-san have decided to re-think your relationship?"

"You can put it like that yes, for now."

"Interesting thought; you ended that encounter with Suzumiya having some hope of establishing a better relationship with you after you spoke, even if your relations have temporarily taken a turn for the worse. That is probably one of the main reasons for why the world wasn't re-created yesterday, she still wanted to see what would happen tomorrow no matter how upset or frustrated she was," Koizumi mused.

"You realize that you must take the next steps carefully," The President said, like he was instructing a bad student.

"I don't think he'll do anything bad enough to warrant another giant closed space from Suzumyia-san. That said, you need to be careful," Koizumi said.

"Yes, yes I intend to be." I don't want to feel Tsuruyas fury.

"What do you intend to do next?" The president asked.

"To be honest I'm not really sure."

Koizumi chimed in. "If I may, I'd suggest you two merely try to spend more time together, go out and do something. It seems to me you both have made this needlessly complex and should simply act like normal people would after a confession. That may be what Suzumiya wants, otherwise she wouldn't have confessed. Although Suzumyia prefers to take the more unusual approach on most things I think just classic dating would be an acceptable place to begin, just make sure to add your own unique twist to it. On the practical side, having the two of you at the same place allows us to focus our resources. So you two spending time together will also help us in keeping you safe, and it may make Suzumiya-san more stable. I'm not telling you to go steady with her but she needs some sort of resolution from this even if it doesn't go the way she wants."

Koizumi is always so eager with dating advice but I've never once seen him even flirting with a girl…

"I must agree," The President said. "This whole confession business isn't really my area but on behalf of the organization I feel compelled to give you some small advice, if only for the stability of Suzumiya-san. It's simple really. You two have got yourselves all reeved up but you haven't even been on a single date yet, It makes no sense and it can't be good for the mental stability of Suzumiya-san go through such a frustrating courtship. You kids need to get over yourselves, go at least catch a movie or something before you beat your brain into a pulp over this. That's my two cents. And from a business standpoint you two being at the same place means one less place that needs to be monitored."

Did I just get ordered to take Haruhi out? What's with everyone...

"I have a question," I said, partially to steer the conversation from my current predicament with Haruhi. "How do the time travelers or the Data entities think about this?"

Kozumi answered my question.

"We're not sure what the time travelers make of this. We haven't heard any extreme reaction for either side from Asahinas group. They of course say very little to us anyway. Almost everything's classified with those people. You can feel free to speak with Asahina-san about this matter if you'd like."

"And the Data entities?"

This time the president answered.

"I tried speaking with Kimidori-san. Didn't really understand all she had to say. She did say that the data entities where to remain observers and not change their protocols because of this. I really dislike that approach. Having beings that powerful constantly over my head feeling like they're just waiting to strike isn't exactly relaxing."

Believe me, I can relate to that.

They spent a while longer interrogating me and clearing out some details. After that they repeated some of the stuff they said about me being careful, said they needed to contract their superiors and sent me away. By the time we were done lunch break was over and lessons had resumed. I had to walk into the middle of a lesson.

"Why are you so late? Lunch break was over fifteen minutes ago," Okabe-sensei asked me as I walked to my seat. I could tell from Haruhi's look that she was just as curious to find out where I had been.

"I had a meeting with the Student Council President," I said.

"Really?" Okabe asked. "In that case just take your seat. I'll check with him later."

He then resumed the lesson. Not that I would notice. I was far too deep in thought. So the kiss had been a trap to weaken the whole organization. And now I was neck-deep in some power struggle between two powerful factions all the while I must keep little miss brigade leader here happy and looking forward to tomorrow. I couldn't get any of this out of my head for the rest of lessons.

Once class was over Haruhi wasted no time, stood up and said "Come on, let's go to the clubroom" before walking ahead without me. As I followed her a voice stopped me.

"Excuse me, Kyon-kun? Might I have a word?"

I turned around. It was a girl. A pretty one. I couldn't remember her name but I knew she was the class representative.

"Yes, sure, what is it, class rep?"

"Just call me Tamura," She said and giggled.

"What do you want, Tamura-san?"

"I was just wondering why you had such a long meeting with the president. As class rep I make it my business to keep tabs on everyone. It's nothing serious?" She said and smiled at me.

Lady, you have no idea.

"No," I lied promptly, "To be honest it was a personal matter but nothing you need to concern yourself with. Just a little misunderstanding that needed to be cleared up."

"Oh, I see" She said, then she looked down and made a strange face. One you make when you're bracing yourself to say something "Another thing…It may be none of my business but I couldn't help overhearing you and Suzumiya-san this morning and noticed the awkwardness, and again during the lunch break when you apologized to her for not being able to talk to her. Did something happen? I tried to talk to Suzumiya-san during the lunch break but she just told me to leave her alone."

Why does everyone find any interaction between Haruhi and me so fascinating? It's getting tiresome.

"No. Or- well yes you can probably tell something did happen. Nothing serious. It's not really any of your business I have to say," I said, trying to sound polite.

She gave a shy smile back. "Sorry, didn't mean to pry, it's just that sometimes I wonder about you two."

"Kyon!" Haruhi yelled from the doorway of the classroom. How long had she been standing there? Most if the class had left so it was just the two of us and a couple of other students cleaning in the classroom. "Are you coming?"

"You better go to her," Tamura said apologetically.

"Ues, well, thanks for your concern all the same," I said and walked over to Haruhi.

Haruhi and I began walking our normal route to the clubroom.

"I thought you said you wouldn't talk to other girls," Haruhi said annoyed.

"What? I said I wouldn't date other girls…I'm not planning to either."

"Then why did you linger in the classroom to talk to Tamura?"

"I didn't linger. She just wanted to know why I spent such a long time in meeting with the president. Said it was her duty as class rep to keep tabs on such things. She also was worried about you."

"She should just keep her nose out of my business!" Haruhi declared. Does she mean she wants her to leave her alone or stay away from me? Does she want me to completely stop talking to other girls? Sadly, that wouldn't be much of a change for me.

"What was it you wanted to say to me before Koizumi came?"

"It's…I don't really remember, wasn't anything important."

"Yeah, I thought as much," Haruhi said resigned, "But _I've_ been thinking…"

For a few moments Haruhi seemed to be picking her words carefully.

"What I said yesterday about you saying something concrete today wasn't really in the spirit of taking things slowly. I don't want to force some contrived melodrama out of you."

This you don't see everyday, Haruhi speaking cautiously to me.

"That's nice of you," I said.

"Shut up, you're not of the hook." She shot at me.

"I'd still like to hear you say something. You said we should take it slowly but can you tell me just what this 'it' is? You didn't really tell me anything about what you want to do or…what you think…but just so you know, after yesterday you have a lot to make up for! I'm willing to give you the chance to redeem yourself, don't waste it."

Her frustration became very noticeable as she spoke, I can hear some of her old melancholy returning.

She just asked the million dollar question, or tried to at least. My brain has been processing this since last night and I think I've finally formulated something of an answer, with a little help from Koizumi and the President. I still need to make up my mind about how I feel about this. Some part of me wants to see where this relationship goes, and another part of me knows I might be getting in over my head here. I just honestly and truly don't know how I feel about this, and in these circumstances I'm mostly just concerned with keeping her and everyone safe. But don't read too much into that. A non-committal and vague answer that still feels like it could be the start of something should do it and that I can provide. Indecisiveness thy name is Kyon.

"I think making up a definition based from how other people would act or stealing a line from a romance manga would just bore you or worse. Is it enough to say that I think we should try spending more time together and see where it goes?" I said.

Spending time together would obviously help my in keeping her safe and stable, and with all the time spent together already I don't see that much harm in spending more time with her. You do get used to her. Also, after yesterday's events I realize I can't rely on my allies to keep her completely safe. Don't read too much into that either.

We had arrived at the clubroom door. Haruhi stopped in front of the door but didn't open it, she just stood there with a thoughtful look.

"Spend more time together? What do you mean by that? We already spent plenty of time together," She said, not satisfied with my answer.

"Yeah but…you know, do something different," I tried to explain.

"Like what?"

"I don't know…can't we just…you know…behave normal and go see a movie or something?"

Haruhis thoughtful look turned into a subtle smile.

"Is this the first time you ask a girl out?" She said with a mocking voice that carried just a hint of cheerfulness.

"Yeah…yes it is," I admitted.

"It shows, you're awful at this!" She said. Her smile widened and turned into her trademarked bright smile.

"Well, you've forbidden me from getting any practice in this so of course I'm an amateur," I joked.

She didn't think that was funny at all.

"Don't blame me for your shortcomings," She shot at me, "but despite them…yes. Okay, I accept."

"You…accept?"

"Your offer, I'll go see a movie with you," She said like she was thoughtfully accepting a meager gift.

On a side note this means I have a 100% success rate when asking girls out.

"Did you give any thought to what movie you want to take me to?" she asked.

"No…I haven't."

"Amateur," She said with a smug smile. "Fine, I'll meet you halfway and pick out a movie. All you need to do is to be ready at your house at eight. Wear something nice!"

And with that declaration she opened the door. The rest of the brigade was already there. Yuki looked up from her book and from her expression I just knew that she knew what had happened yesterday. Could it be she could hear what we said just now with some sort of elevated senses? Come to think of it the door wasn't exactly soundproof. Asahina was looking at me like she was seeing at a ghost. After a few seconds she realized she was staring at me, made a cute little panic-y noise and turned back to her tea brewing. Haruhi gave me a questioning look but didn't say anything. I guess Asahina knows.

The rest of the school day went on like a normal day in the clubroom. I played a few games of chess with Koizumi, Asahina tried brewing a new type of tea and Nagato just read her book quietly. Our glorious leader hardly spoke and seemed very distracted in whatever she was doing at her computer. I did catch her glancing at me a few times but she still hardly looked up. Asahina was acting really weird. She kept staring at me with a strange expression.

Around half-six Haruhi stood up from the computer, picked up her school bag and walked towards the door.

"I'm going home for now. Don't forget Kyon, at eight!" And with that she left.

"What happens at eight?" Koizumi asked without looking up from the chessboard.

"I'm not really sure, I think Haruhi and I are going on a date of some sort."

"whhaaaa-" Asahina gasped. "You and Suzumiya-san? since when! What happened! Did either of you confess?"

Asahina turned bright red and stared at me, gaping and confused. I guess she hasn't heard after all.

I told Asahina what had happened the day before. The meeting with Tachibana, the kiss, the argument with Haruhi and where that had left us.

Asahina made an adorable confused face once I had finished my story. After I was done talking Koizumi chimed in before she could speak.

"Perhaps I should also talk. The organization has tightened the security around Suzumiya-san. The school, her home and the places she frequents have all been put under closer surveillance and have more resources allocated to them. There's also a unit that will monitor her 24/7 and will be close by on your date this evening. I'd like to leave now so I can notify the Organization that she plans to have a date around eight to they can be prepared. I'll speak with all of you separately later."

He stood up and left the room, leaving me with a befuddled Asahina and an unreadable Nagato.

"Kyon-kun," Asahina finally said.

"Yes?"

"Promise me you'll be careful. You don't have to try to be a hero," Asahina said solemnly.

"Sure…of course, but it don't really know what you mean by that. I don't think a date with Haruhi will be dangerous to me."

"Nonono, It's not that. Just- just don't put yourself in danger," Asahina was getting chocked up now. I could see a tear in her eye.

"I'll try not to," I said but it didn't do much to comfort her. "You're acting weird, do you know something I don't?" I asked, a bit unnerved.

"That's classified."

"Are we in danger? More than just from Tachibanas group? "

"That's classified."

"Can't you tell me anything? You're freaking me out here."

"That's classified."

I stared blankly at her. As if I didn't have enough to deal with.

"I'm sorry I can't be more helpful, just don't put yourself in danger."

With tears in her eyes she left the clubroom without saying anything more. I sort of miss Koizumis long elaborate speeches now, at least he explained himself. This just left me confused more than anything. I felt like chasing after Asahina but somehow I think trying to probe her for information would just upset her more. She has those psychological restrictions that prevent her from talking anyway. I turned to Nagato.

"Do you know what this was about?" I asked.

"Partially."

"Can you spell it out for me?"

"Follow Asahinas advice."

"Right…I'll stay away from danger then. Don't you have any knowledge about the future? I feel like Asahina–san is keeping something away from me."

"The future is…unclear to us."

"What do you mean unclear?"

"There has been erratic temporal activates and we suspect that time travelers might be responsible but so far we've found no distinct pattern in the temporal anomalies."

I leaned back into my seat. It felt good to finally be able to talk about something else other than Haruhi, even if it was an unspecified danger that I was potentially facing. Nagato had been a source of stability in bad situations before this and maybe she could be now. Maybe it was just wishful thinking but I really felt like one chat with her could fix everything.

"What are the data entities going to do about this mess? Can't you do something to make this do away?"

"Drastic measures have not been deemed necessary or advisable," Yuki said.

"What about yesterday? According to the organization drastic measures where called for."

"Had the situation deteriorated further we would have resorted to data manipulation to influence Suzumyia-san. It did not come to that"

"I see."

So at the time we were in the park the data entities where watching us and ready to intervene? I'm not sure what she means by data manipulation. Not sure I want to know.

"Aren't the IDSE or the Domain going to do something about the tension that's building up?" I asked.

"I cannot speak for the Domain, but the IDSE is operating on the understanding that they have reached the same conclusions as we."

"And what are those?"

"There are only two ways in which this can develop. Either this standoff will stagnate and gradually fade away as neither side finds an opportunity to strike, or one side will make a move prompting an unpredictable and undesirable situation that is likely to have an unfavorable outcome."

"If the IDSE does act the group advocating the transfer of power to Sasaki will likely be alerted of it as they are monitoring all they consider rivals closely with the help of the Domain. With the Domain monitoring our actions on Earth it will be difficult to use our data manipulation without them detecting it. Even if we hide the act itself with manipulation they will know we are hiding something by detecting data manipulation taking place at all and they will alert their allies. Therefore any significant action, hostile or not, on our part will only result in forcing this conflict to escalate. The same goes for the Domain in regard to Koizumi's group so they are equally pressed not to act. For the time being we will monitor and be prepared to initiate damage control operation should it become necessary. Anything beyond that might result in open hostilities between the IDSE and the Domain as we'd be forced to act against each other to preserve our interests."

I wished she always gave such long answers to my questions…

"So you're saying that you're going to wait and see?"

"Maintaining the status quo is the better alternative to open conflict if it can be avoided."

"What about your goals?"

"The acquisition of Auto-evolution capabilities will become difficult if Suzumiya-san gets harmed or her surroundings grow unstable, the stability of her environment serves the interest of the IDSE."

"I see."

I took a moment to take all this in. Nagato stared at me with what felt like probing eyes. I stared out the window, at students and people in the street going about their business. Was this really just one wrong move away from turning into a battlefield?

"This group Tachibana belongs to…they're just humans and espers, right? Wouldn't it be easy for you to simply brush them aside," I said hopeful.

"Do not underestimate their resourcefulness. Even on their own they might pose a minor threat to our goals on earth. Furthermore, they are aligned with the Domain. Any act against this group would be a declaration of war on the Domain and such conflict might end in unfavorable results for all parties. We wish to avoid that."

"But can't you just…talk with the Domain, do something to diffuse the tension?" I suggested.

"We do not place that amount of trust in the Domain that a simple talk could ease the tensions between the groups, Nor can we ourselves attempt to influence both groups to stand down as it would count as a hostile act. Furthermore, any action taken by both of the data entities in unison to influence both groups to stand down could result in them realizing they're being influenced and respond in an irrational manner. We've already deliberated this at length amongst ourselves. For now we will monitor and be prepared to act should the worst come."

Silly me to think I can think of something a hyper intelligent alien wouldn't have. I'm out of my league here. How did I find myself in the middle of all this? Haruhi Suzumiya is the answer to that question. I've no more question for my alien overlords. Except one;

"How do you feel about this?"

"This?"

"This whole situation. How do you personally feel about this."

Nagato had a thoughtful pause before she answered.

"Yesterday's events where…unfavorable to me."

"They were that to everyone."

"Unfavorable to me as an individual."

"I…I see."

Wonder what she meant by that.

"Could you give me any advice? I'm not sure what I'm doing here."

"The ISDE and the Organization are doing everything that you could possibly do. The only thing you need to concern yourself with is keeping yourself and Suzumiya safe and stable and also define the parameters of 'something nice' as defined by Suzumiya-san."

"What, something nice? Right, so I guess you heard us when we were out in the hallway?"

She nodded.

"I see. I actually could use some help with what she would consider nice."

"The outfit you wore when you got me my library card," Nagato said. "It was…nice."

At that moment my phone began to ring, the caller ID said Sasaki. I answered.

"Hello, I'm not interrupting anything," Sasaki said.

"No, not at all."

"Good. You said yesterday that you wanted to speak to me so I wanted to let you know I'm available now."

"Can you meet me now?" I asked.

"Yes, how about that café were we had our first meeting, can you be there in 20 minutes?"

"Yeah sure, see you then," I said and hung up, maybe a bit abruptly but I wanted to cut this conversation short. I don't know who else could be listening

Nagato suddenly extended her hand towards me.

"Your Phone," She said.

Knowing better than to question her, I handed over my phone.

She held it for a moment, and then the phone began to glow for a brief moment. After the glow faded away she handed me the phone back.

"This device can no longer be monitored." She said.

"…Thanks."


	3. Turn The Other Cheek

**April 17th. Thursday Afternoon. The Coffee shop.**

I found Sasaki waiting for me at the coffee shop. She already had already bought two drinks and had one of them placed in front of the seat opposite her.

"You look worn out," Sasaki said warmly as I took my seat, "Have you been up too much since we last met?"

"I take it you haven't heard what happened," I said.

"No. I'm afraid I've been concentrating on my school work lately and haven't meet much with the others so I've been out of the loop. It might be irresponsible for someone in my position to be so aloof but after that last meeting I wanted to reconnect to the real world and gain some perspective," Sasaki said and pushed the drink near me closer to me.

"Yes...I understand, if only I could do that," I said wishfully and accepted the thoughtful gift by taking a sip.

Sasaki gave me a caring smile. "Maybe you can. Perhaps this meeting of ours can be your return to normalcy."

"I wish, but I'm afraid it's beginning to look like we must take our situation seriously…that's why I wanted to meet you in person," I said and shifted gears to a more serious tone. "There has already been an escalation and everyone seems to be gearing up for more. Koizumi told me yesterday that Haruhi and I are under surveillance and I think the same could go for you. He also told me that there's some sort of security around Haruhi. At first I thought it was too much to monitor the girl but after yesterday I wished they had tighter security...It wouldn't surprise me if there was someone following you too."

Sasakis smile slowly faded and turned into a concerned look.

"I see," She said contemplative, "I suspected there might be someone watching us since we've attracted the attention of factions like these. If you think about it, such powerful abilities are bound to act like a magnet to ambitious people."

She leaned forward and focused her concerned look at me.

"Tell me, what happened yesterday?" she asked.

As if that hasn't been analyzed to death already…

"Haruhi…went off," I said. That vagueness was my attempt at avoiding the specifics.

"She went off?" Sasaki repeated and raised an eyebrow.

"Yes," I said. I didn't think I'd need to explain that further to anyone who knows Haruhi. Then again maybe Sasaki doesn't…

Sasaki leaned back and took a sip out of her drink.

"I see. And what set her off?" she asked.

"I guess that would be me," I admitted.

"Could you explain that, please?" She asked.

"It's really a long story."

Sasaki took another sip and her caring smile returned as she put her tea cup down before she spoke.

"I can hear that it's difficult for you to talk about this," She said with understanding in her voice, "However, I don't think me prying every word out of you is a good way to spend the time we have. We're in this together so please just tell me what happened."

"Yes, Yes, you're right of course," I said and rubbed my temples in preparation to repeat my tale of woe yet again. "Tachibana asked to meet me. She and her group had established Haruhis routine and had her under surveillance. She led me on a walk, made sure we were in front of Haruhi and then she kissed me. Haruhi did not take it well and used her powers to create a giant closed space. It was to prove a point to me and the organization about Haruhis instability. They taped it and leaked the video to make sure everyone would know what happened."

Sasaki didn't visibly react, just stared down into her drink for a while with analytical eyes. When she spoke her voice was neutral. I wouldn't say her tone was detached but rather very deep in thought.

"I understand. I didn't think Tachibana would do something like that but from our meetings I gathered she had been manipulated into doing immoral things for her cause or because she believed it was the right thing to do. She's not a bad person you know."

I didn't feel like paying lip service to that last statement. I didn't agree but I'm not going to argue with Sasaki about it, Tachibanas ethics aren't important now.

"This may be the worst aspect of these powers," Sasaki said, "With greater stakes and greater potential people may feel justified in taking more drastic actions. Even good people may feel that doing something bad if they feel that it will have good consequences. I think most people are basically good, but with great power their values get distorted and they do bad things despite the best intentions."

"I'm not sure if that's incredibly naïve or incredibly cynical," I muttered.

Sasaki chuckled with her signature "kukuku" and her warmth returned as her analytical-mode melted away.

"But tell me," Sasaki said, her curiosity clearly peaked, "Seeing you kissing Tachibana _set off _Haruhi?"

"Yes, she formed a giant closed space. She may have been close to re-creating the world."

"And what stopped her?" she asked.

"I think it was me. I talked to her afterwards and managed to calm her down."

"I see. It's beginning to sound to me like you're just as much of a catalyst for the use of these powers as she is. Maybe even more so as you're aware of the effects you're having and can influence her to limit her use. Tachibana told me that Suzumiya has seriously attempted to recreate the world once before, and came rather close to it. You were there at the time, weren't you?"

"Yes…she summoned me to her. I went to sleep and when I woke up I was in the closed space with her. She was going to make that closed space into a new reality," I said as if any of that even made sense.

"And you stopped her?" Sasaki asked like she already knew the answer.

"Yes, using hints from Nagato and Asahina I found a way," I explained.

Sasakis eyes returned to her drink as her analytical mode temporarily returned for a few moments before she looked back up again and fixated her eyes to my eyes.

"How exactly did you stop her?" Sasaki asked cautiously.

Good grief...why are we talking about this? I came here to warn her of a conspiracy not do discuss...this.

"I just talked to her…" I said and rubbed my chin, which was feeling warmer now.

"And what did you say to her? What convinced her to stick with this world?" Sasaki pressed on.

"I told her I like ponytails."

Sasaki was silent for a few seconds, during which she apparently decided to ignore that last statement.

"I'm not sure I believe you, I don't think you'd need hints from your friends if all that was needed was just a simple talk. If it was just talk it must've been quite the speech and I'd like to hear it." she spoke with a friendliness that normally wouldn't have matched such an accusation, but with her kindness came naturally.

I didn't answer. I really don't feel like analyzing this yet again.

"Please, I feel we need to have full disclosure and I can tell you're not telling me everything. We can't keep things from each other if we're going to ride this storm out," Sasaki said, and I could tell she was sincere. Of course she was.

Sigh…I leaned back into my seat fiddled with my drink as I stalled the inevitable.

"You're right as usual. I tried to talk her down but it didn't really work. Then I kissed her, after that she instantly returned to reality. She dismissed it as a dream later."

"I See," Sasaki said and smiled at me, "I suspected it was something of that nature…I must say If that's how these powers are controlled I'm not sure how I feel about receiving them." She giggled.

Did Sasaki just tease me?

"I think it's just her, not the powers…but how would you feel about receiving these powers?" I asked. "Have you reconsidered? We haven't really taken a firm position and with the pressure turning up I don't think we can be so passive. Let's say we could transfer the powers with no danger to you or Haruhi, and no nasty surprises, would you take it?"

"I'm not sure…" Sasaki answered and looked to her side, staring contemplatively out the window at the people passing by. "Why should I been given such power, a power that can be used to reshape humanities path? It should not be up to just one person, but with these powers I'm not sure I'd be able to stop myself from reshaping the world and correcting some of the worst mistakes humanity has made and continues to make. Even if right now I have no desire to do so, doesn't power change or even corrupt the best of us? Perhaps the only way not to be changed or corrupted by having such powers is not being aware of them. Suzumiya has never attempted to right the wrongs of the world?" Sasaki turned her head and looked me in the eyes while she waited for an answer for her question.

"No…I don't think it's that she doesn't care," I said and took a sip of my drink, breaking the eye contact. "It's just that those problems are part of the world she has been trying to distance herself from, she'd just rather live her life like she wants and not dwell too much on the grand problems of humanity. But now that she's slowly becoming more attached to this reality she might turn to these problems and slowly chip away at them. I'm not promising anything but I don't think it's unlikely."

"I'm glad to hear that," Sasaki said, and she looked genuinely pleased. "I'd hate to interrupt that process, as an unaware but caring deity might change the world for the better without being corrupted by her own power. Maybe that's the only way an omnipotent human could have a positive effect, if it's the right kind of person with the power. However, there's always the other option. That she goes and does something rash and recreates or alters reality. She could make some disastrous alteration. This really is quite the dilemma. Which would be preferable? A spontaneous and rash god without a grand plan other than his own personal ambitions and little effects other than to his closest environment, or a passive god with a grand plan that affects everyone and slowly reshapes the world? It's rather like choosing between one of the old Roman gods or the Christian god, in a way."

"I honestly never thought of it like that…She is kind of like one of the Roman gods who acts out of personal reasons without much regard for others…but it's a simplification, she's not quite like them."

"I know, and I just realized I have compared myself to god," Sasaki said and chuckled. "I didn't intend to be so egotistical. I'm just trying to put this into perspective and it's hard to do without drawing comparisons to such figures."

"I know what you meant," I said. "I don't think there's a simple solution to this no matter how much we draw comparisons. There's also the fact that I don't think that these factions would allow a transfer and then call it a day…they have their own agendas. The Organization and its counterpart are just people with their own opinions and plans, the time travelers are just working on their grand scheme and the data entities view us as test subjects to further their evolution"

"Yes…I had a question about the time travelers…if either me or Suzumiya would reshape the world would we undo their existence, or would it be what already came to pass and we would inevitably be ensuring their existence?"

The image of the Clubroom without Asahina flashed before my eyes, and it's a bleak one. I'm sure Haruhi would've found another girl to fulfill her "moe" criteria, but she'd never find another Mikuru Asahina.

"I'm not sure," I said, I was maybe a little dismissive but I'm not in the mood for a convoluted time traveler talk. "I've never fully understood this whole time traveling business, I just play along"

"But Tachibana and Fujiwara told me you'd done some time travel of your own?"

"Yes but I don't really understand it, it's like I can ride a bike but I can't understand the physics involved."

"But…" Sasaki said with a concerned look, "Judging by your school and year you should be able to explain simply how bikes work. It's really not that complex."

Huh…guess I have been slacking off…

"Well…that's not important right now," I said. "What is important is what we're going to do now."

"You give me too much credit," Sasaki said and chuckled. "I don't think it's really important what I do at this moment, as I'm not in position to do much right now. You, however, are. When the people you're up against wish to _set off _Haruhi they go after you. Maybe they could've gotten some response by doing something to her directly but when they really wanted to make an impact they used you to get to her."

Hearing her phrase it like that was unnerving. Am I really the trigger to Haruhis blunderbuss of trouble?

"What are you trying to say?" I asked. "There's something I should do?"

"I'm not going to tell you what you should do. I'm just pointing out that maybe there's something you _can_ do. You don't need to feel so helpless, you never would've gotten this far if you were. Suzumiya-sans powers are based on her emotional status based from what I've heard, and you have more effect on her feelings that I think you realize. By using powers like hers correctly any problem could be solved."

Sasaki gave me a curious look while she waited for my response.

"No…I can't do that," I said. "Her powers react to strong feelings and to provoke any dramatic use of her powers I'd have to do something manipulative or even abusive and…I just can't do that. It might be the lesser of two evils with the way things look now, but there has to be another way. I can't just turn Haruhi into a weapon, even for her own good. If I ever do it has to be the absolute last resort, only if they come for one of us."

Sasaki's curious look turned into a satisfied smile.

"Out of everyone who could've ended up with this responsibility I'm glad it was you, but Haruhis powers might be the only resource available to you in the end. Perhaps by the end of this they'll be my powers but then they'd still be available to you. You must realize that if I accept these powers you may still bear this same responsibility. Transferring the power would be like flipping a chessboard around, the advantage of each side would be reversed but the role of each piece would remain the same."

"But…it's been told to me, again and again, that my role in this is largely due to my importance to Haruhi and the transfer would leave her powerless?"

"I'm sure that's true, but you're important to me also." Sasaki said with an unabashed smile.

…how are you supposed to respond to a statement like that told so plainly?

"…Thanks," I said, honestly a bit embarrassed.

"You're welcome."

"…"

"In any case…I understand everything we just talked about, but I'm still just not sure what to do," I said and sighed…this talk, the meeting at school and the talk with Nagato had drained my energy more than mere conversation should and on top of that I still had an evening with Haruhi to look forward do. Speaking of which, I should be getting home...

"If you don't want to use Haruhis powers aggressively all you can do is stay by her side and hope the conflict doesn't escalate," Sasaki said. "There is also the option of me accepting her role and now I have to think about it seriously. Don't worry. Now I know that time is pressing so I won't think leisurely, but I can't take this decision lightly."

"I understand, I wouldn't either," I said. "I think it's fair to let you sleep on it. I also have to decide whether or not I would agree to transfer the power. It depends on what you decide and how this progresses."

"Thank you for that consideration," Sasaki said. Her eyes carried her thanks with added kindness. "This discussion really is quite heavy. I hope that sometime in the near future the two of can meet discuss something trivial and fun like two non-important people. A pointless discussion would lift both our spirits."

"Yes…I'd like that," I said. And I meant it.

There was a moment of silence, which included one prolonged eye-contract.

"You keep glancing at your watch," Sasaki said like she suddenly had a brilliant idea. "Am I keeping you from something?"

"It's…" Remember Kyon, you promised full disclosure. "I have a date with Haruhi," I admitted.

For the first time during this conversation I could see Sasaki was slightly confused.

"Around this time yesterday she caught you kissing another girl, and now you're going on a date with her?" she asked.

"Uhm…yes, that's correct."

Sasakis face betrayed more of her subtle confusion.

"I'm sorry, but I don't understand how that relationship works," Sasaki said without looking up from her drink. She was clearly out of her territory.

"Neither do I," I said with all honesty.

Sasaki stared blankly into her teacup for a few moments. But then, a smile emerged. Shortly thereafter, a slight chuckle. Then another one, and another. Her chuckles then became increasingly shorter between and before I knew it she was laughing heartily. I couldn't help myself, I guess the absurdity if the situation sank in, and I began laughing nervously as well.

"I won't keep you then," Sasaki said once she calmed down. "But before you leave I have to make sure you understand one thing."

Sasaki stood up and walked to my end of the table. Her face turned serious in stark contrast to her joyful mood just a second ago. She leaned over to me.

"I'm still just on the sidelines for now. You're at the center and I don't think these people will play fair or nice. To be honest I'm worried about you," Sasaki said. She leaned towards me and gave me a hug with one hand around me, resting her head on my shoulder. "I'm going to need you to give me some time to deliberate this with myself, but it's hard to think straight if I'm too stressed. Stay in touch so I can know you're alright and keep my head clear, okay?"

She planted a small kiss on my cheek as she broke the hug. It was subtle and probably invisible to bystanders but I defiantly felt it. I didn't know how to react to that so I just nodded.

"Goodbye, I hope to hear from you soon," Sasaki said and walked out of the café, leaving me there to wonder if I had just imagined that last moment.

Once I got home the time was almost seven already. Mom was just finishing making dinner so I joined her and my sister at the dinner table. She greeted me with the declaration; "You're late."

"I'm sorry. I got caught up in club activities," I apologized.

"It's alright, just take a seat. It's just the three of us. Your father had to stay late at work," mom said.

Mom began setting the dinner table with the enthusiastic but misguided help of my sister. Looks like there's some ramen dish for dinner again.

"So, how was school today?" Mom asked once we had all begun our meals.

Where do I even begin…

"It was…okay," I lied as I helped myself to a serving of ramen made by the woman I was lying to. "Lessons where boring, and the club activities kept me busy longer than I thought."

"Is that club the reason you were also late last evening?"

"Yes."

"Tell me, because I've never felt like I've gotten a clear answer, what is it exactly that your club does?" Mom asked.

"It's just a casual club that plans trips, enters competitions, contributes to school events…just a general casual club."

"Aha," My Mother muttered, unconvinced. "And this casual club is so demanding that you have to spend all your time there after school and even show up late for dinner?"

"Yes…It's been a bit hectic these days." Understatement of a lifetime.

"I'm not sure I can approve of that," Mom said sternly. "Have you been keeping up with your studies?"

"Sure," I said unenthusiastically. It was hard to care about my studies at this moment. Everything that was going on kind of made homework seem insignificant. Even more insignificant than it usually did.

"I'm not convinced by that." She was not amused by my indifference to my education. "How'd you feel about cram school? I'm sure it'd do you much good."

"I'm not sure about that…I don't think it's necessary. My grades aren't that bad," I defended.

"I don't want to force you to sign up if you don't want to, but you better keep up."

"Yes, sure, I'll keep my studies up," I meekly promised.

I have a feeling that promise will be hard to keep in the coming days.

"And try to spend less time at that club. Can't have you showing up late for dinner every night."

We spent the rest of dinner discussing trivial matters; my sisters schoolwork, the next family vacation, neighboring cram schools and so on. After dinner I took my homework to the living room and tried my best to work on it in full sight of mom to show my commitment to education. At first it was hard to get into but after a few minutes the relatively easy assignments I had were a breath of fresh air after all the hopelessly difficult problems I'd been faced with today. Truth be told even though I found it hard to care about our conversation at dinner and even harder to care about this homework the return to normalcy, however brief, felt good. There's something about coming home at the end of the day and laying down your burdens while you gather your strength back. I have a feeling I'll need it tonight.

I got a little too into my self-delusion that things were back to normal and was in for a rude awakening once I realized that is was already five minutes past eight and I was still in my school uniform. I left my homework on the living room table and rushed to my room. Nagato had mentioned one of my outfits as fulfilling the criteria for 'nice' so I just found that same outfit and proceeded to get dressed. The second I had taken my school uniform of the doorbell rang. I got in my 'nice' outfit as quickly as humanly possible and ran down to the front door to find my Mother talking to Haruhi in the doorway. There is something slightly terrifying about that sight.

"There he is," My mother said and turned to me.

Judging by Haruhis subtle reaction when she saw me I should ask Nagato for fashion advice more often. "Are you ready, Kyon?" Haruhi asked. She's the image of politeness here in the presence of my mother, just like when they met at the hospital.

"Ready for what?" My mother asked curiously.

"Eeh…Kyon was going to take me to a movie tonight," Haruhi said and gave my mother a polite but cautious smile.

"Is that so?" Mom raised an eyebrow, "I'd like a word with him before you leave if you don't mind, Suzumyia-san."

"That's alright," Haruhi said calmly but looked at me impatiently once my mother had turned her back to her.

"I'll be right with you, Haruhi," I said and followed my mother to the living room. We were not quite out of Haruhis earshot so mom spoke with a hushed voice.

"You didn't tell me you had a date tonight. Isn't she that girl from your club?" Mom asked.

"Yes, that's the club leader. Sorry, it slipped my mind to mention it to you."

"Did I just hear you call her 'Haruhi'? Since when do you yobisute her? And she you?"

"For a while now I guess…don't read too much into that," I begged of her.

"Right…tell me the truth now." Mom stared and me and waited for me to return the eye contact before she asked her question. "Is she the reason you've been showing up late for dinner?"

"Well…uhm…yes, she…That's fair to say." I've lied to my mother enough for today and don't see any reason to deny that Haruhi is one time consuming girl.

"I see," Mom said and looked thoughtful for a moment. "You should've just told me," she said like she had just accepted an apology, then she walked back to Haruhi.

"You'll have to excuse that, Haru-chan, my son neglected to mention he had plans for tonight. You know how he is sometimes," Mom said and gave Haruhi a neutral look, perhaps there was something more subtle being communicated through that look but I sure didn't pick up on it.

Haruhi just smiled back and nodded. "Yeah…I know how he can be," she said, slightly amused.

Two of the women that know me best just agreed that something's wrong with me. Fantastic.

"Have him back by eleven. You two have fun now," Mom said to Haruhi and walked back towards the living room.

Why is Mom telling Haruhi to give me back by eleven and not telling me to be back by eleven? Is the leader-subordinate dynamic so strong with us that even my own mother picks up on it and accepts it after just few moments?

After mom left I put on my shoes with two shift motions and Haruhi and I left the apartment. We began walking side by side but still somehow with her leading us, so I guess she has a plan for tonight. It was already dark outside and the streets where relatively empty, you could only make out a few people in the streetlights. Hard to believe there are probably spies active on such a peaceful street on such a tranquil evening.

I gave Haruhi a cautious glance from the corner of my eye. I can safely say that her outfit meets and exceeds my own personal criteria for 'nice'. Nothing more complex than a simple jacket and a medium-length skirt, I can't even make out the colors properly, but still...Her face is somewhat readable in this darkness without leaning in for a better look, which I think would be inappropriate, but it's obvious she has her guard up.

"I went from Suzumyia-san to Haru-chan in less than a minute, what did you say to your mom?" She asked while we were crossing the main parking lot of my neighborhood. Her question carried a hint of accusation.

"Nothing really, she was just surprised to see you and wanted to know what was going on"

"You didn't tell her we were meeting tonight?" Haruhi asked.

"It didn't come up. Did you tell your parents what you were doing tonight?

"No, It's none of their business what I-" Before she could finish that thought she was interrupted by the voice of my father.

"Where are you going at this hour on a school night?" My dad asked. Evidently he was coming home from work and we had just happened to run into him on the parking lot.

"Dad? Welcome home…I'm just taking Haruhi to a movie," I explained, hopeful he wouldn't act _to _surprised...

"Oh…I see." He glanced at Haruhi, and gave me a strange look. "I won't interrupt you further then," He said and tried to suppress a yawn. He probably needed some sleep before he could process this fully, it looks like he had a tough day at work. He walked pass us, giving Haruhi just an acknowledging nod before moving on. Haruhi and I then kept on walking.

"Sorry if he seemed rude," I said once he was out of earshot. "He works really hard, some days when he comes home he's like that."

"No need to apologize for him, my mom's the same way…I don't understand people who live like that. Work themselves ragged every day and are too tired to do anything once they come home. Where's the fun in that?" Haruhi preached.

"It's not about fun, Haruhi, some people work hard to provide for their families. Every man should be proud to come home to his family after a honest days work."

Where is that girl leading us anyway...these aren't the main roads, there's hardly anybody else around on this path...it's quiet. Too quiet.

"I know it's not just about fun," Haruhi said impatiently, "I know you need a job to support yourself but you don't need to exhaust yourself on your job to make a decent living once you've worked your way up the ladder. When you see pictures of millionaires and billionaires they rarely have bags under their eyes."

"So you're going to become a millionaire?" Come to think of it, if she wants to be a millionaire won't she wish that future into reality? Reality warping must have its perks.

"I didn't say that, I don't really want to be one of these people with more money than I could possibly need. There's more to do than just collect money!" Haruhi declared.

It's okay, I can get her to reconsider later.

"So what do you want to do?" I asked, genuinely curious.

"I don't know, Just a job that I can make a good living out of without spending all my energy on it. I want to be able to use my energy elsewhere."

"I don't think there's a job in the world that could ever wear you down," I murmured.

"You got that right!" Haruhi said and gave a pleased chuckle.

After a few moments of silence, my phone rang. Checked the caller ID and saw it was Koizumi.

"It's just Koizumi, I'm gonna see what he wants," I said apologetically.

"Sure, tell him I said hi," Haruhi said. She did not sound pleased with this distraction.

I walked a few steps away from her and answered the phone.

"Haruhi says Hi."

"…thanks," Koizumi said.

"I assume this isn't just a courtesy call?" I asked, despite knowing the answer.

"No, it isn't. We wish to communicate to you that you are under close surveillance and also that we have strong evidence that our rival group has people following you, more than just surveillance teams. We don't know if they're planning anything so stay on full alert."

"I understand. Tell me…is there by any chance a special ops team on standby?"

"As a matter of fact there is a small detachment ready, why?"

"Never mind," I muttered.

"All right…where are you taking Suzumiya-san?"

"We're going to the movies."

"which theater?"

"I'm not sure…"

"I see…you better go back to her. We'll be in touch if anything comes up."

"Right."

"What did he want?" Haruhi asked once I hung up.

"It was about our meeting with the student council president, he just needed to clear a few things up," I lied almost without thinking.

"Koizumi was at the meeting with you? What was that meeting about? Is that stupid president gunning for the SOS brigade again?"

"No, nothing like that. It was just the president being himself, describing his nonsense in detail would only annoy you."

"You got that right," Haruhi muttered, "Lets not allow that idiot to ruin the evening."

It's unnerving how casually I lie when I'm talking to her. I've been trying to make up for it by telling half-truths instead of outright lies. Still, at the end of the day does that really make a difference? I'm just telling her what she needs to know for practical purposes, I'm not really explaining anything to her.

We walked in silence for a minute after that. It's hard to think of a topic when you're looking around for spies or worse, and the still-present awkwardness between us provides an added difficulty. I didn't really see anyone suspicious as there was hardly anyone around. This silence didn't feel as awkward as I would've thought. Haruhi isn't too bad when she's being quiet. Whoever's watching us is in for an uneventful evening. We were approaching one of the commercial centers of this town, which means that there are more people around which in my mind translates to more potential spies. At least it´s better lit.

"So, we're really going to a movie?" I finally asked. "I know I suggested it but with you I would've expected a date to be something more…unusual."

"What do you mean by that? There's plenty of interesting movies out there if you know what to look for," Haruhi said, exited but clearly a little bit insulted. "This one is based on true events and it's all about weird happenings related to spirits and ghosts!"

"Wait, you're talking me to see a scary movie? Isn't that a bit cliché for you?" I asked her, daring to tease the deity.

"You think I'll be clinging on you for support against the scary images on screen?" Haruhi said a familiar tone of mockery. "Spirits and ghosts don't even scare me in real life, I'd be thrilled to meet one and have a conversation or even just getting a good look at one. Wouldn't you?" Haruhi said excitedly.

She's back in that familiar role of the preaching leader. Normally I wouldn't be thrilled about her return to insanity but after all this drama it's kind of nice to see her acting more like herself. A bit annoying, but nice.

"I'd rather sleep well at night than to be afraid of the dark because I've managed to confirm that there really are ghosts. If ghosts really exists then ignorance is bliss as far as I'm concerned," I said.

"Really? Stupid Kyon. Why be afraid of ghosts? People only fear what they can't understand but if you seek them out and learn about them there'll be nothing you don't understand and therefore nothing to fear. If you fear them and never seek them out you're always going to be afraid."

"I guess that makes sense," I conceded, "I'll just leave the seeking out to you, and then you can tell me what you find out so I understand and don't have to be afraid anymore."

"Deal! As long as you handle the menial tasks of our investigation," Haruhi said and chuckled, probably picturing me carrying something heavy for her.

We arrived at the theater shortly after that conversation. It had quite a turnout for a school night, and it was a rather small theater so it was awfully crowded. Haruhi grabbed my hand as we moved into the crowd. It made sense to do that so we wouldn't lose sight of each other as we maneuvered through such a crowded place. It was a pragmatic decision to return the gesture. Haruhi lead me to a less crowded part of the theater, near the restrooms.

"Ugh, why are all these people in the theater on a school night!" Haruhi asked no one as she stopped and let go of my hand.

Before I could point out the obvious hypocrisy she pointed a finger at my face and spoke commandingly.

"You! Go buy the tickets and get us a popcorn and soda."

"Why do I have to do all that? I'll buy the tickets but can't you at least get your own soda?" I said, slightly annoyed at the demand.

"You have to spend money because you're a guy on a date." She placed her hands on her hips and leaned closer to me, "and because I'm still mad at you for what happened yesterday. This is the first step on the long road of your penance."

I was wondering how we had gotten this far without mentioning that incident. Wait, 'the guy pays' is her idea of a date? But I always pay...huh.

"To think you'd waste your first kiss like that," Haruhi muttered bitterly

My first kiss saved the world, missy.

Without arguing anymore I got into the long line for the tickets. I glanced back at Haruhi at regular intervals. Looks like she's was on the phone for most of the time, though it's hard to tell because of the crowd between us. Who'd she be calling on a date? Updating one of her friends with the latest gossip? Seeking Tsuruya's council on how to handle men?

Once I was done buying the tickets and refreshments I came back to the spot I had left Haruhi but she wasn't there. I must say I didn't expect the center of the universe to move. As I looked around for her in the crowd I noticed another familiar face, and she noticed me too. The familiar face walked over to me.

"My my, what are you doing on a late night showing on a school night?" she said.

"I could ask you the same, Tamari-san"

The class rep smiled timidly.

"I was just bored enough to go by myself and there's this movie I really wanted to see," Tamura said shyly. "Are you alone as well?"

Sigh. I was hoping to keep this affair out of the school gossip circle but now I've been caught in the act. Tell one girl some piece of gossip and the next thing you know everybody knows.

"Well, again, Not that it's any of your business but I'm here with Haruhi," I said, hoping she'd pick up on how forced my politeness sounded.

"Oh?" She asked curiously. "You two patched things up? That's good to hear. I better leave before she finds me with you. From what I've seen she's the jealous type. Enjoy your movie."

"Thanks, you to."

And off she goes, presumably so she can call her friends and inform them of the 'hot couple'. I hope these things end once I graduate high school, I'm not looking forward to listening to some pointless comments from that idiot Taniguchi in school tomorrow and the knowing giggles you hear when you pass a gathering of gossiping schoolgirls...

"What did she want?" Haruhi asked, suddenly standing right next to me. I really hope she doesn't make a habit out of going for my blind spots. "I go to the restroom for just a sec and find you speaking to another girl right away?" she accused.

"She just wanted to say hi. She's here alone, I think she's just lonely."

"She's weird," Haruhi said and gave the girl a strange look as she watched her walk away. "I noticed her when I was waiting for you. I think she was staring at me, and she didn't even come over to say hi. She just kept talking to her phone in the middle of the crowd. I don't even saw her buy a ticket."

Hearing Haruhi calling Tamari weird was like being a witness to the pot calling the kettle black. Before I could point out yet another of her little hypocrisies she surprised me by taking her soda from me with her left hand and putting her right arm around my left arm, hooking me in, walking on and leading me onwards.

However, come to think of it, that Tamari girl really is weird. We've hardly spoken at all and suddenly she's interested in my meetings with the president and my relationship with Haruhi. And now she's showing up out of nowhere right when I've been warned I'm being watched…

I stopped dead in my tracks once I came to a sudden realization.

"Kyon? Is something wrong?" Haruhi asked.

"Uhm…I remembered something I forgot to mention to Koizumi earlier tonight. I'm sorry but I have to call him."

I freed my hand, walked a few steps away from Haruhi and called Koizumi.

"Hello, Koizumi?"

"Kyon? This is a surprise, I didn't think you'd call me now. Is there anything we can do for you?"

"No, it's just that…haven't there been any like…you know…enemy movements? Nothing's happening?"

"It's difficult to tell exactly what they're doing, but we're relatively certain they've done nothing but observed so far. The agents we've spotted are still outside the theater."

"But…Tamari-san, the class rep in my class…is she suspected of being an agent? She's been asking me questions about me and Haruhi, she asked about the meeting with the president and she's here now."

There was a brief silence, I heard some muffed talking.

"Thanks for bringing this to our attention, Kyon-kun, I'd say she's a suspect. But we saw her leave the theater just now, so don't concern yourself further with her for the time being, get back to Suzumiya-san."

Koizumi abruptly hung up.

"Well, are you ready for the movie now?" Haruhi said, not hiding her impatience.

I didn't answer, just walked next to her and wordlessly extended my left elbow back to her. She wordlessly grabbed it and walked on.

"I know you promised to stay away from other girls, but maybe you shouldn't have stopped there. These constant phone calls with Koizumi..." Haruhi teased.

"…what?"

"Have you and Koizumi found yourselves a little loophole in your promise?"

"…Don't say that! Don't even think that!"

She laughed and gave me a mischievous grin

"You know, it would be alright for you get with him," She leaned closer to me and whispered into my ear "As long as you _share_."

She just horrified me more than this scary movie ever could.

The movie was interesting. It was about a family that moves into a new house and starts to see ghosts and other weird things, so they call a paranormal investigator to find out what's going on. The premise wasn't too fresh but everything was played straight and down to earth. It was almost like a reality show or a documentary, and watching a movie that feels down to earth but still includes ghosts and such simply messes with you.

Haruhi kept asking me questions. What do you think that was? Why is he doing that? What kind of ghost detecting equipment is that? Do you think that ghost detector would work? Where do you get gadgets like that? Do you think it's expensive? How much is there left of the literature club budget? She earned us a few ugly looks from fellow moviegoers with her constant inquiries but Haruhi didn't let that affect her moviegoing experience. She even submitted to cliché and reflexively grabbed my arm twice during a scary scene. To be fair those two scenes startled even me.

Once the movie was over we followed the flow out of the theater with the rest if the crowd. The first thing that we saw once we got out of the theater where the lights of a cop car, the red light gave this otherwise peaceful street something of a grim ambiance.

"Wonder what that's about," Haruhi asked

Cops? Does this have anything to do with us? Some aspect of this cold war that has surfaced? Somehow I'd rather not find out.

"Come on, lets just go, it's impolite to stop and stare at people who are working. Even cops. Especially cops," I said, partially copying Haruhi style of lecturing.

Haruhi grudgingly took her eyes of the cops and walked along with me.

"So, where do you live?" I asked.

"You're walking in the right direction," Haruhi said like she sensed some sinister agenda behind my words, "Why? You're gonna walk me home?"

With all the fuzz you've attracted to yourself I would feel better if I at least got see you get home as opposed to leaving you to walk home by yourself in the middle of the night. Who would've thought paranoia would inspire chivalry in me. Not that there's any real danger to either of us with the organization watching over us...

"It's dark already, can't let you go on your own," I explained.

We walked on, with Haruhi in the lead as usual.

"What did you think about the movie?" She asked once the cop car was out of sight and she could no longer glance back to try to see what was going on. I felt a small loss of security once I was out of sight from the cops and back to these empty streets that Haruhi leads us into.

"I liked it, I can see why you picked it," I answered honestly.

"Right?" Haruhi exclaimed excitedly. "Those paranormal investigators have such interesting lives! I think the SOS brigade should go on a ghost hunt soon."

"Interesting lives? That was what you took from the movie? They put themselves in great danger just do get some inconclusive proof," I challenged.

"And wasn't it interesting? They got to use all sorts of gadgets and see a lot of things most people never will, even if it was just a glimpse. Of course it's was risky, otherwise everyone would be going ghost hunting. That sort of adventure is reserved for the brave!" She preached.

"But…wouldn't you rather be doing something safe? I mean as a job. Is being interesting really that important to you that you'd take the extra risk?" I dared to ask.

My glorious leader preaches on.

"Safe is boring. Of course I'd rather work at hunting ghosts than take some plain desk job. You wouldn't?" She asked as if it would be something wrong with me if I didn't.

"I never seriously considered a career hunting ghosts, can I get back to you on that?"

"You should, and I'll make sure the SOS brigade gives you plenty of training. Why didn't I think of this before! Japan is an old country with a long and rich history, there have to be so many ghosts with fascinating stories!"

"Just read a history book," I said dismissively.

"That's no fun," she shot at me like I was completely missing the point.

She is in her normal 'Scolding Kyon for being an idiot for some reason' mode that I've come accustomed to but with a small difference, She seems to be enjoying herself a lot more than when she usually does while lecturing me. That movie has gotten her all excited.

As I was about to tell her to calm down I felt a sudden chill at my back. On instinct I looked back and then I saw it. A faint white glowing silhouette of a woman with long hair wearing a traditional kimono standing just a few meters away from me. It was the size of an adult woman. She hardly moved, but her hair and dress flowed as if it was blowing in the wind. I only saw her for maybe a second or two before she quickly faded away.

"Kyon? Why did you stop?"

"oh…uh…It's…nothing…."

What the hell was that? A ghost? Did you do this, Haruhi?

"Come on, We're almost-"

Haruhi took a shift bounce towards me and grabbed my right arm with her left, squeezing it.

"Did you see that! What was that!" She said panicked and pointed ahead with her right hand.

"What?" I took a look at the direction she was pointing at. "I don't see anything."

"It was just…no…I'm probably imagining things. I thought I saw…that movie got some silly ideas in my head." She did her best to hide how shaken up she was, but she still didn't let go of my arm as we walked on even if her grip loosened. I believe 'security cling' is the proper term for this behavior.

"So you admit that whole ghost thing is silly?" I dared to hope.

"Of course it isn't silly," She shot at me, "It's just that we're not going to happen to run into a ghost right after we saw a movie about ghost hunting. Those investigators worked a long time with high tech equipment and just barely saw one. It's unlikely we'd stumble onto a ghost with no effort. That movie just got me all wired up and I'm seeing things."

You pick the strangest things to be rational about…

"I though ghosts didn't scare you?" I asked.

"Shut up, whatever it was just startled me" Haruhi said slightly embarrassed and surveyed our surroundings with a scowl on her face. "I would've preferred a real ghost over some trick of the mind"

Somehow she didn't convince me. If you really wanted to see the ghost he wouldn't have disappeared the moment you saw him and realized he scared you. Or maybe you didn't really see anything and your mind is just playing tricks? In that case the real ghost is reserved for me, just like every other weirdness you attract. I'm finding myself less disturbed by that ghost than I should be. I guess the time I've spent with Haruhi has heightened my tolerance for weirdness. Don't think I'm a hero, I'll still be losing sleep over that…

"Tell me Haruhi, is being interesting really so important that you'd accept being at risk as long as you were doing something interesting?"

"I wouldn't put it like that…but sure some of risk would make any situation more exciting, don't you think? Or is that more than you can handle?"

Let's not get into what I'm capable of handling…

"For arguments sake. Lets say that right now we're being watched by a secret organization that might be planning to kidnap you or worse. Do you think such a threat would improve this moment?" I asked, trying not to make it sound like an accusation.

Haruhi gave me wary stare.

"What a strange thing to ask," she said surprised. "Of course I wouldn't want something like that. We just went to a movie, no reason that would be even remotely dangerous."

Normally I'd agree.

Haruhi suddenly stopped walking.

"We're here," she declared.

It was so dark that I couldn't really see what her house looks like, but from what I could see it was similar to mine. Larger, maybe.

Crap. What do you do at the end of a date? I've watched enough TV shows to have seen this scenario a hundred times but I'm still drawing a blank...Haruhi spoke before I thought of a scene that fitted.

"So…this was kinda fun. Kinda boring, but fun," Haruhi said gingerly, but with a smile on her face. She didn't meet my eyes though, seems like she's looking at the windows on her house to see if there's anyone watching.

"uh yeah…this was…nice," I uttered with unusually high levels of awkwardness even for me. Smooth.

"This is just a start," Haruhi said, turned to face me and shifted gears to a more aggressive manner of speaking without losing her smile. "You wanted to go slow so we start with this, but you better remove those training wheels and take me somewhere interesting next time! I won't slow myself down for you for long," She warned playfully.

"Right...yes," I said, "I'll make sure to find some creative way of endangering you soon."

Haruhi actually laughed at that.

"That's what I like to hear!" she declared, leaned towards me and gave me a kiss on the cheek. More of a peck maybe but still, it counts.

"That's for being a gentleman and walking me home," She quickly explained as if she needed to be crystal clear on that point. "See you tomorrow."

And with that she left.

So…this was weird. While this is still definitely Haruhi, she didn't quite act like Haruhi. It was the same attitude, the same strange opinions, even the same strange reality bending power. Despite all that something was different about her. The only thing that can stop Haruhi being Haruhi would be herself, so could it be she was trying to act a little different? Consciously trying to act less like a harsh supervisor and more like just a girl on a date? And how do I feel about that? This wasn't bad but was she really being true to herself? Or was that the real her? Can she change more than she already has? Does she have do? Do I want her to? I'm glad we're talking it slow because this one simple date filled me with more questions than I feel can handle all at once.

Koizumi and the President were right, Haruhi and I have got ourselves all tangled up. I think the only reason we could back up and just do something simple right after that drama bomb yesterday is that we're so used to causal interaction between us so whatever happens, we can always return to the default. So is that a strong foundation or something that needs to go and be replaced by a new status quo? Or both? I didn't dislike this date, it certainly had it's moments but...I still don't have that clear answer Haruhi demanded from me, just more questions. I will say that in all of this confusion in the past few days this time I spent with Haruhi really did feel like a break from my troubles, it even felt like maybe things could turn out okay. But of course that could just be an illusion, brought on by the fact that I've been keeping Haruhi in the dark…

Before I could finish any more of my thoughts a black SUV pulled over a short distance away from me. The door opened and behind it was Koizumi.

"Good evening, Kyon-kun, I was wondering if you'd like a ride home."

"Sure."

I stepped into the car. It was modified so that there were two additional seats opposite the usual passenger seats. This must be the mobile meeting room of the organization. Next to me was Koizumi and opposite me was Mori-san dressed in classy businesswoman attire. The car began moving as soon as I had buckled my belt. I hadn't told them where I was going, I assume the driver already knows where I live. And who I was seeing tonight, and what School I go to, and my habits and schedule...he and all of his organization.

"Good Evening, and congratulations on the success of tonight's operation," Mori said. I couldn't tell whether she was being sarcastic or not, she sounded sincere but...

"You're calling it operation now? I thought it was just a date."

"I'm afraid that with Haruhi Suzumiya there is no such thing as _just a date_ as far as you're involved."

"I guess not...tell me, that cop car by the theater, was that you?" I asked.

Mori kept on talking like she was debriefing me after some sort of a military operation.

"I'm afraid so. Our rival group placed two men by the exit of the theater, they were on a stakeout but were also equipped for something worse. We caught on to their presence and moved in as they prepared to put their plans in action."

"So...you had a fight and got arrested?"

"No, the cops where with us."

Unbelievable...I knew Koizumi said his organization had an entrenched position in this town but to say the cops where _with us_ was more than I expected. Mori went on.

"The ones that our rivals placed where know criminals, equipped with gear that was way above their pay grade. This is a common tactic of theirs. They have plenty of money and equipment and when they need some extra manpower or just need someone expandable they recruit from the local lowlifes. This makes them flexible and makes for their opportunistic tactics."

"...what? You're telling me that the people that are after me use criminals?"

"I'm afraid so."

"And they were using criminals to try to capture us tonight?" I said, not hiding my shock.

"That is what the criminals thought. But we believe that the attempt wasn't sincere," Mori-san said dismissively.

"What do you mean?"

"These where just petty criminals. They would never have slipped by our net, let alone carry out their operation out successfully. We believe our Rivals where merely testing the water and seeing how we would react. That's why they used expandable men, ones that would also be hard to trace back to them. We can't really prove any relation to them and the criminals, but trust us, we know."

"So...we're safe? They were just testing you?"

"I'm afraid not," Koizumi shot in. He's being awfully quiet...not that I'm complaining. "Think about it, why would they want to know how we would react to an immediate threat to you and Suzumiya?"

While I was working out the answer and its implications, Mori-san interrupted my gloomy thoughts.

"They're planning something. I assure you we are talking appropriate measures and will continue to do our part, just as you've played your part perfectly tonight judging by what our surveillance showed us."

She followed that sentence with an almost motherly smile. Normally that smile would've been motherly, but when followed by 'judging by our surveillance' it's almost menacing.

"So...you saw the whole thing? Tell me, did you see the ghost?"

Mori-san gave me as surprised look.

"...Ghost? You saw a ghost?"

"Yes, just now when I was walking Haruhi home. It appeared behind me. I saw it for just a second."

"I see. Did Suzumiya-san see it to?"

"I think she may have. She got startled right after I saw it and grabbed my arm. She dismissed whatever she did see as a trick of the mind."

"So that's why she suddenly got so affectionate. We did wonder about that."

Wait. A girl suddenly gets all doting to me and 'she saw a ghost' is considered a far more logical solution than just 'she likes you'. Bah! What am I saying...

"Well yeah she grabbed me...why would she call a ghost to us? She was pretty preoccupied with that ghost move but still...I don't get why she would make a ghost appear."

Mori-san spoke like an old teacher explaining something she had already explained what she was saying numerous times.

"Well...It's never been clear whether she creates supernatural phenomenons or merely summons them to herself. She may have been convinced that ghost existed so she wished one briefly into existence or really wanted to meet one so she wished one would appear."

Koizumi also had something to say, and spoke with a similar tone.

"She doesn't consciously control her powers, just seeing a compelling movie may set of some slight use of her powers. You only saw the ghost for a second so it may only have come to existence for a second, just a moment before her rational side took over. You should have been able to come to this conclusion yourself, and probably will once you realize that this is still the same Haruhi Suzumiya you've always know even now that you know more about her. Nothing fundamental has changed about her, and you've always had a lot of insight into her powers and way of thinking. Even if you seem to have a bit of a blind spot at times…"

"Yeah well..." I don't like the weird way this conversation is headed. Shouldn't we be arriving at my house soon? I think the driver is intentionally taking a longer path to make this conversation longer...lets just steer it into another direction.

"But the ghost? Think it's dangerous? Think it'll be like the one in the movie?" I asked.

"It's conceivable, but probably not," Koizumi answered, "if she does create the supernatural things around her it's unlikely that she structures them completely. It doesn't sound like her to write the rules to time travel, plan the structure of the organization and much less to think up the endless complexities of the data entities. If she did create them, she didn't write the details. So if she created the ghost she didn't think of the details."

This just gave me a headache...the car stopped so we must've arrived. I looked around and saw we were at the parking lot of my building.

"There's one other thing before you leave," Mori-san said like she was unsure whether or not she should bring her next subject up. "We know you met with Sasaki today."

"I see...and what about that? Wasn't I allowed to?" I asked with a trace of over-defensiveness. I'm not in the mood to have a civilized discussion with my stalkers.

"Why did you meet her and what did you talk about?" Mori-san asked like a cop taking a report, just doing her job.

"I...Do you really need to know? I called her because I was worried about her and wanted to make sure she knew what was going on. The rest isn't important and isn't any of your business."

"I see," Mori-san said, with a look in her eyes that said she didn't believe me but conceded that she had gotten all the info I would willingly reveal.

"You go rest now," Mori-san said, back to her motherly ways. "The next days may be difficult for you so rest is important. We'll watch over you. I assure you no ghost will slip pass our safeguard."

She smiled at me, mixing motherly concern with the creepiness of a stalker.

I left the car and slowly strolled back home. I tried to piece this evening together to try and find some logical conclusion to it or predict what all this was leading up to. I was drawing a blank. Once I got home I found my father watching TV in the living room, the only light source in the room was the faint glow of the television screen.

"You were out late, your mother said you'd be back by eleven," Dad said once he noticed me. He wasn't really scolding me, He spoke lazily but still sounded interested.

"Yeah, sorry, I walked Haruhi home so I was out longer than expected," I said and sat down with him and looked at the TV screen. There was some football game on. The volume was so low that I couldn't hear the commentators, but looks like yellow's winning. "I didn't think I'd find you awake, you looked half-asleep when I met you earlier," I said.

"I fell asleep over the game, you woke me up just now when you came home."

"Oh, sorry about that."

"It's alright. So, you found a pretty girl, took her to the movies and walked her home? Guess you're my son after all," Dad said and chuckled, "but me and your mother were talking earlier and she's worried about you, and I couldn't help noticing your unfinished homework all over the living room table. And showing up late for dinner all the time? Your mother said it was because if that girl, you said so yourself."

"uhm...yeah...about that..."

"Look, I won't lecture you. Just know this. If you're going to share your life with someone, make sure you have a life to share in the first place. Don't forget yourself and your future, alright? I'm going to bed."

And with that piece of parenting out of the way he left. I wish I was in a situation where that kind of genuine fatherly advice would apply. I doubt my dad can help me with my current problems...maybe I should even be trying to think of a way to keep my parents out it this, out of harms way. Though I'm sure the organization already has a plan for that. Maybe I should clear that up with Koizumi.

Although, maybe in its own weird way that advice did apply. Don't forget yourself, don't forget your future...in a way that pretty much sums up the solution to this predicament, doesn't it? I must solve this without compromising my values and I this must be resolved in a way that allows everyone involved to still have a future after this... I think those guidelines should be followed.

I went to bed shortly after that. As I was drifting off to sleep a thought occurred to me. Didn't Haruhi kiss roughly the same spot that Sasaki kissed just a few hours before? Add that to the long list of ´Things Haruhi must never find out´, but still it gives me hope that maybe my life isn't so bad after all.


	4. Burning Bridges

**April 18th. Early Friday morning. Kyons Room.**

I woke up that morning to the ring of my cell phone. After trying to tune it out for a few rings, I grudgingly reached for it.

"What?" was the best greeting my groggy self could come up with.

"Oh? Kyon-kun isn't a morning person?" The person at the other end of the line said.

"I don't like anything that bothers me before my alarm clock rings," I muttered.

My caller made a piercing cheerful laughter, "Then you must not like me, what a shame, I was going to offer you a ride to school today."

"…what?"

"I think you could make good use of me, and I of you."

"…who the hell is this?"

"It's Tsuruya, mr. sleepyhead, or maybe the proper address is sleepyhead-san?"

...how tired must I be to not recognize her voice?

"You're calling to threaten me again?" I asked.

She laughed yet again, I'd prefer the alarm clock to this treatment so early in the morning.

"That depends, have you been kissed by any girls other that Haru-nyan since I talked to you yesterday?" she said mockingly.

Yes.

"No."

"Then you're safe, but we need to talk. Would you like a ride to school?"

Far too sleepy to do anything than just go along with this bizarre turn of events, all I did was murmur some agreement.

"Okey greats, I'll pick you up at that parking lot by your building at 7:40, see you then."

Tsuruya picked me up at the promised place and time. She, or rather her driver, was driving an all too familiar black SUV. It didn't have modified seating so it wasn't the same car as I was in yesterday but it still was the same model. I wonder where the organization gets their cars…

"So…what did want to talk about," I asked once I had stepped into the car.

"How was the date with Haru-nyan last night?" Tsuryua asked enthusiastically.

"It was…good. Is that all you wanted to talk about?" I said, making no attempt to hide my annoyance.

"It needs to be better than good if you're going to work off your penance after what you did," Tsuryua teased.

"Look, I don't even…what penance?" I asked.

"You and Haru-nyan where on equal footing, equally hopeless, and then you went and did something stupid so now you owe her," Tsuryua said with a wide smile on her face. Is she being serious or is she just mockingly repeating lines from Haruhi?

"I…guess that's hard to argue with," I conceded…can't really defend what I did without starting a potentially ugly argument.

"But no, that's not why I wanted to talk to you," Tsuryua said and her mood suddenly turned serious. She turned and grabbed her schoolbag and began rummaging through it while she spoke.

"I told you that I know you and your brigade are special, right?"

"…yes."

"And I know that you special people have special problems."

"…Tsuryua-san, just how much do you know?"

"Enough."

She handed me a small laminated piece of paper.

"This is for you. These are telephone numbers you can call and addresses you can go to in case your special problems catch up to you."

"…Are we sure we're talking about the same thing here?"

She laughed and gave me a smile that confirmed that indeed, we were.

We talked about some trivial things for the rest of the drive. Tsuruya seemed eager to hear details from the date, or rather my side of the story, and she really wanted to know what the brigade had planned for the future. Once we arrived at school I just thanked her for the ride and the offer to help and we parted ways.

Once I got to the classroom, Haruhi was already there in her usual seat. I wasn't sure what was an appropriate greeting now, so I just turned around and gave her a casual "Hi."

Haruhi didn't answer back, just glared at me with disapproval in her eyes.

"…Is something wrong?" I asked after enduring her scrutinizing stare for a few moments.

Her response was two simple words, yet they carried so much significance; "They know."

By the context, I was able to make the following assumptions:  
>They; refers to the class we're in.<br>Know; are aware of the fact that yesterday we went on a date.

"…I see, how do they know?" I asked, although I had my suspicions.

"Maybe if _someone _hadn't gossiped with Tamura yesterday, they wouldn't know," Haruhi said, not hiding the accusation towards me.

"Don't worry about Tamura, I've already reported her to the proper authorities…but how do you know that they know?" I asked.

"They asked me for clarification, turns out a few of them had a pool going," Haruhi said with a mix of embarrassment and annoyance, "those in our class that bet that we'd be dating by April just made a few thousand yens."

"…I'm honestly not sure how to react to that," I said surprised.

"Perhaps if you hadn't taken so long this wouldn't have happened," Haruhi shot at me, trying to keep her voice down and glancing around the classroom. I followed her example and noticed that quite a few students were watching us with knowing smiles. Too knowing, I think I can see were Haruhis annoyance comes from…

"Why didn't anyone tell us about it, seems like almost everyone was in on it," Haruhi muttered.

"You mean we could've gotten in on it, bet on a month at our convenience and then make some money?" I joked.

Haruhi narrowed her eyes at me. "This isn't funny," She said, "just look at them, staring at us like we're some sort of comedy routine. I don't get the joke."

"Maybe it's the fact that we've grown so used to arguing that we've adopted the style of bickering that only people who argue with each other all the time for a long time use. You know, old married couples," I explained cautiously, "couples our age are usually more…I don't know…lovey-dovey, for the lack of a better term."

"That's ridiculous!" Haruhi declared, "Just because we're not acting like some idiots who need to get rid of their excess hormones as soon as possible doesn't make us a joke!"

"Yes dear," I said with feigned defeat in my voice.

"…Shut up," Haruhi said annoyed with a hint of embarrassment, "And don't call me that."

"Call you what? Dear?" I asked.

"Yes, I don't like it," Haruhi said crossly.

"Then what do I call you?" I carelessly asked without thinking.

"Well…guess we haven't really talked about that…" Haruhi said, suddenly speaking cautiously and quickly raising her guard up.

"What do you mean?" I asked slightly confused.

"This morning when the girls were talking to me, the asked if we are…you know…If we we're just dating or…damnit, don't make me spell everything out for you!" Haruhi shot at me, turning her defensiveness into and offensive seamlessly.

Crap. I did not mean to steer the conversation in that direction. We are not prepared. Abort.

"I assume 'the old ball and chains' is unacceptable," I asked in my attempt to derail this conversation using my finely tuned sense of humor.

Haruhi didn't answer, just stared at me with an utterly unamused expression waiting for a proper answer.

"Look…lets just let them gossip, who cares what they have to say?" I said.

"Fine," Haruhi muttered, "It's obvious that this is going to be done with baby steps."

Shortly after that lessons began. This time around they were a little easier to follow, my mind was more at ease than it had been for some time now. Once lunch break arrived Haruhi didn't immediately go to the cafeteria as she usually does but instead jabbed me in the back with her mechanical pen.

"Kyon," She said, "That girl from Wednesday…"

Sigh…

"I've been thinking about this…I didn't get a good look at her because _your face _was in the way," Haruhi said with clear disapproval in her voice, "but she kind of looked familiar and I think I finally realized this…she was one of Sasakis friends, wasn't she?"

"…Yes," I admitted, "That's probably where you knew her from."

"I see," Haruhi said like she had just been informed of something to trivial for her even to notice, "and just what we're you going with her? How do you even know her?"

"We met though Sasaki, like you probably guessed." I was trying to make this sound like a casual conversation but the tension behind her nonchalant mannerisms is quite tangible.

"You _met _though Sasaki? You've been meeting with Sasaki much?" Haruhi asked in that specific tone only young women seem to master, when they're clearly offended but try to sound like the barely care enough to ask.

"A few times," I admitted, "but we just met for drinks for a short time. Nothing improper."

"I see," Haruhi kept the same tone, "So while you were being annoyed at me for no reason these past few days you were casually meeting Sasaki for drinks?"

"Uhm…" Crap. Why is she more interested in Sasaki then the girl she saw me kissing anyway? "If you're feeling…I don't know, threatened by her or something…you really don't need to be. When a girl and a boy are just friends for a long time there's usually a good reason why they haven't started dating.

"Is that so," Haruhi said coldly, "and what good reason was there that we were just friends for a year and never when anywhere?"

That's it. I'm not playing this stupid game of accusations, especially when there's nothing behind them.

"Stop this nonsense," I said annoyed and rubbed my forehead, "It's like you're trying to pick a fight, just…drop it."

Haruhi and I stared at each other for a few moments, she with stern disapproval in her eyes and me with firm defiance in mine. I think we were both waiting for the other person to show weakness by looking away.

Suddenly, Taniguchi appeared before us.

"So it finally happened!" He loudly declared, "You did cost me a bit of money by not waiting until June but still, well done!"

We both turned and focused our glares at him. We withstood that for only a few seconds.

"Erm, I can see you're busy so…" He rambled and excused himself.

We refocused our looks at each other.

"Look," I said after a few moments, "I'm not dating Sasaki, and I'm not dating Tachibana. I'm dating you."

Haruhi didn't immediately respond, she seemed to be weighting the value of my words.

"Will you be meeting with Sasaki again?" She finally asked.

"At some point, probably," I admitted.

"Then I'm coming with you," Haruhi stated like she was a supervisor making a decision on something she had full authority on.

And that's how far we got without me getting in trouble for intentionally keeping things away from her…Sasaki and I can't speak freely with Haruhi present so my options are to cut off Sasaki, or somehow talk to or meet Sasaki behind Haruhis back…and in my mind cutting of Sasaki simply isn't an option. Doing stuff behind Haruhis back hasn't turned out so well either…Damnit, this doesn't need to be this difficult, Haruhi only has to relax a bit…

"That's…not how this works," I said cautiously, "This…'we'…we're not like the brigade with you as leader…you can't just decide something like that."

"So you don't want me along?" Haruhi shot at me, "Maybe you should just accept that in any context the two of us will be leader and subordinate."

"It's not that," I said, ignoring her second statement for now, "But we need to…"

I drifted off as I ran into difficulties picking my next words, this is getting far to convoluted. We need something to cut through the nonsense here. A clear impartial mind like…like Sasaki. Haruhi seems to have let her mind run loose with her ideas about Sasaki and what Sasaki is to me, maybe if I can somehow show her that she's worrying about nothing...A crazy idea struck me. Crazy enough to work. I reached for my phone. To be honest it was potentially a horrible idea but if Haruhi can just be reasonable for a moment…

"What are you doing," Haruhi said and raised an eyebrow, "We're not done here!"

I scrolled though my contracts, found Sasaki and called. Her school probably also has lunch break about now.

"Hello, Sasaki?" I greeted once she answered. Haruhi glared at me like I had done something especially audacious.

"Yes? Why are you calling me? I thought more time would pass until we next would speak after last time," Sasaki said.

"Yeah, I'm sorry about calling so abruptly, but Haruhi wants to talk to you."

Haruhis eyes widened and she stared at me in disbelieve.

"Does she?" Sasaki said.

"Well…She seems to be misunderstanding some things and I think it would help if you two just…talked."

"I see…put her on then, I have a few minutes."

I handed Haruhi the phone, she blankly stared at it for a few moments before taking it and putting it to her ear.

"Hello? This is Haruhi Suzumiya…yes…yes…we did…uhm, just a movie…he did? I see…when was this? _Yesterday_?" She looked up to give me a disapproving glare. "No, it's not a problem…what did you talk about?...Oh, I see…what? No, we haven't really…thank you…yeah, so do I…he didn't say…yes, I knew about that…he told you? That's still up for debate…but why…"

Suddenly Haruhis face turned kinder and for a brief moment she looked at me like I had suddenly given her a thoughtful gift. That only lasted for one fleeting moment before her face turned serious again.

"…he said that? Really? But…yeah I know but…thanks…so you never…and he really…yes, I believe you, It's just that…I understand, goodbye."

Haruhi hung up and handed me my phone back, then leaned back in her seat and stared out the window. After a short while of that she simply stated, "If you meet with her, you tell me about it. Okay?"

"That's fair, I guess," I conceded. I almost wanted to ask her what Sasaki said but I wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Suddenly, the president entered the classroom and walked up to me.

"Kyon-kun," He said, "I was wondering if I could have a word."

"Uhm…sure," I said, stood up and followed him out. I glanced back at Haruhi and saw her shooting daggers in the back of the President.

Once we were out in the hallway, the president stopped and turned to face me.

"What's this about," I asked.

The president took a deep breath and pushed the bridge of his glasses.

"We had less time than I thought," he said firmly, "There have been enemy movements, big openly hostile enemy movements, and we need to act now."

"What do you mean?" I asked, "I though you guys had this under control? Just what is going on?"

"The so-called _French Incident_ hurt us more than we imagined," He said and gave me a stern stare.

What could he mean by 'French Incident'...oh, _that_.

"Judging from what has happened in the last hour there have been more defections, more leaks, and our position has been damaged more severely than we previously believed, and the enemy is taking every advantage. We don't know who to trust but from how efficiently our foes are fighting us it's obvious they have people from the organization helping them…and just now, our enemies decided to make a move directly towards the school, attempting to surround it," The president said. I think it's the first time I've seen him visibly nervous.

"Hold on a second, what do mean by a move? Attempting?" I asked. My heart was racing faster now, what he's saying…could thing really turn so bad so fast?

The president sighed impatiently.

"I don't really have time to explain this to you. Look, Koizumi tells me you're good at games? Imagine a chessboard. The enemy pawns just got into position to make things easier for the more dangerous pieces to move in and capture the Queen."

I swallowed. That I did understand. This isn't good.

"I can see you understand me," The president said, "to make matters worse the time travelers have fallen silent, we just can't reach them. But that's not the worst thing. The Data entities have disappeared. All of them, with no warning they suddenly…just disappeared."

"…what? How could they…that's almost more unnerving than your enemies moving in for a strike."

"Yes, I agree," The president said, "It's like walking home alone at night when all the insects suddenly fall silent. You have to wonder just what the hell could have that effect."

"I don't know what to make of it…Yuki has been more worn out but I never thought she might disappear, I don't think there's anything that could harm her but still…but I guess we have more immediate problems, you say your enemies are moving in?"

"We wouldn't even have seen it coming if it hadn't been for a fluke that allowed us to catch on in time to pre-empt the agents they've installed in this school and around it. Seems they were trying to surround it to prevent any escape, but a slip up on their part allowed us to intercept their communications and react in time. We've countered by capturing the agents we know of closest to us and creating a gap in their surveillance just large enough for you and Suzumiya-san to disappear, but you _need_ to go _now _before they realize. "

What.

"That...That's your plan B! Have me grab Haruhi and run?" I snapped at him, "I thought you guys had this huge organization with meticulous planning and massive resources. Koizumi even told me you had the upper hand in this town?"

"Trust me, Kyon-kun, when I say that it wasn't plan B. It wasn't plan C or D either," The president growled. He spoke hastily yet very clearly, like he was used to explaining complex things quickly, "The eventuality that we would need to ask you to take Haruhi and disappear is known as contingency plan G. It was only to be used if our nearby resources where tied up, we had been infiltrated and didn't know who of your own people to trust, and had no time to react and where toughly at a disadvantage. Don't be fooled by our initial success, The enemy has the upper hand here right now and will be coming for us reinforced once they've realized what we've done. It's even a possibility they just allowed us to interrupt them so they could lure us into a whole different trap while we had our agents tied up in dealing with the ones they allowed us to capture. You need to run before this get worse because it will, and then Suzumiya will be captured along with you."

"I...why me? Run where?"

"Anywhere, go as far and deep as you can get." He handed me a par of keys. "These go to locker 243, in it you'll find a bag with money, forged credentials and so on. A fugitive starter kit. You can also take my bike, it's the red one at the very end of the bike parking, the key to the lock is on the keychain. Go out the gate and head left and go that way for a few blocks. You should then find a way out of the city, I suggest by train but it's up to you."

I reluctantly accepted the keys. This was getting overwhelming. "But why me? What about Koizumi?"

"Haven't you been listening?" The president snapped at me, clearly in no mood to have this conversation any longer. "Koizumi is _very _preoccupied right now. You're the only one we can be certain hasn't defected, at least you'd never hand her over to those people, and one of the few people she would actually follow, and this is an emergency measure. A total last-ditch effort. We have effectively been defeated here, a tactical defeat anyway."

"Her following me?" I said sharply. "She always does just whatever she wants! I can't just pick her up in my arms and run!"

"Yes, I know," The president said coldly, "and I knew having someone like you as a part of contingency plan was a huge mistake."

Those words actually got to me for some reason, before I could come up with a response the President continued.

"I've watched you and I've read the reports. From what I've seen you're not much more than a dog on a leash. Sure, you bark whenever something rubs you the wrong way but you have no teeth. Your master does listen to you from time to time, but will never let you take the lead. You're always the grunt."

The nerve...what's his deal and why does this make me so angry? He doesn't even know what he's talking about! She does lead the way but I'm not lead around on a leash...I glanced at my tie...dammit!

"Just look at you. Even now when your life, both your lives, depends on it you can't even take the lead. It's just pathetic." The president was getting vicious.

I was seriously pissed off now. "I'll show you!" I yelled without thinking and turned around. For a second there I thought I saw a smirk on the president's face when I glanced back at him as I stormed back to the classroom.

I barged into the classroom. I got some confused or annoyed glances for the way I rushed in. I stopped just in front of Haruhi.

"What's gotten into you?" She said, unimpressed at my entrance.

"I...uhm...We have to..." Damnit. The president wasn't right. I'm not just some spineless dog. I looked down. At the tie, my leash. I can't turn into a coward now, I've never done that when push comes to shove.

"What is it, Kyon?" She said slightly annoyed.

"I need you to...come with me for a minute," I said hurriedly.

"What? Lunch break almost over, we can just talk in the clubroom after lessons." She seemed a bit surprised but still dismissive...goddamit.

I stared at my tie for a second. I can't act so timid now. The president was right...partly. I've had this leash on for a long time. Long enough. It's time for a more equal partnership, or something like that. I began loosening my tie.

"Stand up, Haruhi," I demanded.

"What? You're being weird Kyon," Haruhi accused.

"Just do it," I insisted.

To my surprise, she did stand up. There was a slightly intrigued look in her eyes.

I had taken of my tie now. I grabbed each end of it and whipped it around Haruhi's neck. Her eyes widened.

"Whaaa- Kyon! What do you think you're doing?"

Now let's see, how does this go...the rabbit goes twice around the tree, does this, down the hole...

"KYON! I demand to know what you think you're doing to your leader! The whole class is staring." She said that last part in an uncharacteristically hushed tone. Since when has she cared about what the class thinks…

I tightened the knot. Haruhi made a slight choking noise. More from surprise than the tie being on to tight.

"Just shut up and follow me," I said and dragged her by the tie out to the hallway. I tried to look just straight ahead so I wouldn't see the infuriating knowing looks of my classmates.

I pulled her along with me to the entrance of the school. I have to admit that the satisfaction from this role reversal did a lot to lessen my anger, which only made me rational enough for it to sink in how bad this situation was if the president was telling the truth. Once we had reached the lockers by the exit I let her go.

"Kyon! What the hell!" Haruhi yelled at me, sounded angry but still I think I saw a more of surprise in her eyes than anything else. Well, now is the moment that I spit it out.

"Haruhi...Let's take a trip together!" I said like I was ordering an underling. Maybe I sounded too harsh. Staying cool under pressure wasn't easy even if I have more experience in dealing with pressure than I'd like. I thought the situation had fully sunk in. It hadn't. It just kept sinking. I saw some students staring at us from across the room...why are they staring? And that teacher? I don't remember seeing him before...

Haruhi used my moment of paranoia to get over the sheer shock her face gave away.

"Whaaa- You…Kyon! You Idiot! What's gotten into you!"

That unfamiliar teacher, was he reaching for his cell phone? Crap. He's looking at us. And those students who were staring at us just seconds ago where nowhere to be seen. Are they behind me? I don't have time to convince her...she just has to think it's interesting and she'll follow. Don't I have to tell her whatever she wants to hear? For now I think that justified. She just stared at me, uncertain what to make of this. I continued.

"Well...I have to say it, our...date yesterday was kind of...boring. You thought so, didn't you?"

"I-" She now looked downcast "I guess it was..."

"I want to make it up to you," I said. I really did sound sincere, but was I? I was sincere that it wasn't a great date, and I wished to make it up to her by not having her captured. Lets leave it at that. Why is that other girl staring at me? She's on the phone! Who's she talking to! We need to get out of here.

"I have money enough to take care of this," I said, trying to sound decisive. The president did say something about money in that locker. "Let's just go now. We can both miss half a day of school and it's the weekend anyway."

"But, to just run away! And after just one date!" Haruhi said confused. "Isn't this too much? You where the one who wanted to go slow."

She was right of course. Normally I'd never whisk a girl away like this but fate has forced my hand, or something like that. But she with her eccentric views should be excited about this. I can tell she's on the verge of accepting this abrupt suggestion, she has a hint of that demented look she gets when she gets an idea and turns into the unstoppable barrel of fun we all know her as. Do we really have to analyze where we stand now? I don't think so...wait. I think I can just tell her that.

"Haruhi...how do I put this…Look, we don't have to decide where we stand right here right now, lets just not be boring. Let me take you to the nearest train station and find somewhere interesting to visit." I said, trying to sound enthusiastic, "I'm trying to be spontaneous, work with me."

The look of surprise faded and turned into a contemplative one. For a few moments Haruhi said nothing and just stared outside. Those few moments tried my patience even more than Haruhi usually did. Every glance from a fellow student was now hostile every phone call made in my presence was now an enemy calling for backup. The President said we had a few minutes? Hadn't few minutes passed by now? Dammit Haruhi...

"Okay!" She declared with a sudden wide smile "I didn't know you had this in you! I'm gonna have to keep a closer eye on you!"

And I'm on you.

"Great! Wait here for a second, I have to get my bag." I left her standing there with her thousand watt smile...she sure got into a good mood all of a sudden...and tried to find that locker the president had told me about. After a little hurried looking around I found the locker and quickly opened it. In it was a bag about the size of my schoolbag. On top of it was a wallet and...a small Taser gun? Good grief...I put the wallet in my left front pocket, the Taser in the inner pocket in my school jacket and put the bag on my shoulder and hurried back to where I had left Haruhi.

Once I got back she wasn't there. This was where I left her, wasn't it? I looked around...A few students there were staring at me. Why the hell did I take my eyes of her for even a second? I called out her name.

"...Kyon?" said a female voice, coming from a girl standing at the end of the locker row. The only way you'd miss her if you were out of your mind. I need to get myself together.

I walked to her, grabbed her wrist and led her out the door.

"Let's just go."

I headed for the bike parking, dragging Haruhi along with me.

"Wait, Kyon, what about our schoolbags? They're still in the classroom!" Haruhi asked.

"I'll call Taniguchi and ask him to take our bags and leave them in the clubroom," I said.

"You're going to tell _that guy _we're going away and won't be able to make it back?" Haruhi said accusingly, "Do you realize what he'll make of that?"

"…right, I'll ask Kunikida."

We had arrived at the bike parking. I let Haruhi go, picked up the keychain and walked to that red bike and unlocked the chain around it.

"Is this your bike?" Haruhi asked mildly surprised.

"Yeah, it's new," I said like she was asking the obvious, "I just rode it to school for the first time today."

"But…" Haruhi said, suddenly confused, "Tsuruya said she was going to give you a ride to school today."

Oh for the love of…

"Why are you trying to lie to me?" She asked sternly and gave me an especially dirty look.

"I…I wasn't sure how you'd react to me spending any time with another girl," I said apologetically and got on my bike.

Her dirty look continued for a few moments. We don't have time for this…

Suddenly her faced turned from angry to merely a bit annoyed, she took a seat on the bike.

"Common, what are you waiting for, pedal on!" She commanded, and I obeyed.

I rode out the school gate, with Haruhi behind me sitting sideways with one arm around me and my bag resting on my shoulder. I turned left like the President had told me. Then again, I hadn't thought of it before but can I trust him? Though I suppose that if he was planning to defect and lead me to a trap he would've given me widely different instructions than 'Run and disappear'.

"Slow down, Kyon" Haruhi scolded, "don't be so reckless, you're carrying precious cargo!"

Indeed, and I intend to get it away from here. I slowed down a bit but not significantly, I think this isn't a good time to be talking it slow.

"So where did you want to go?" Haruhi asked once we had been going for a few minutes.

"I'm heading for that big train station that's a few blocks from here," I said.

"The big one? But the trains there go out of town. You were planning on a long trip?"

I don't really have a solid cover story here, do I? How do I explain to her that we can't come back for some time after this daytrip? Screw it, priority number 1 now is to get her away, I can deal with the fallout later.

"Yeah, I think we've explored this town enough. Isn't there any neighboring town you want to see?"

"Well…" Haruhi thought for a moment, "There is this one that has a few sights I wanted to see."

"Great," I declared, "We'll go there!"

I pedaled on for a few minutes and then we arrived at the train station. There was a bike parking nearby so I left the bike there, didn't have a lock on me but I don't think I'll be needing that bike again.

Haruhi and I walked into the station. It was spacious and mostly empty. Felt like a perfect place for an ambush. Wouldn't they place people at the nearby train stations if they wanted to prevent escape? Oh well, I don't see anybody suspicious around…

Haruhi found the departure schedule and glanced over it.

"Hm…There isn't a train leaving for that town I wanted to go to for another hour…I guess we can wait?" Haruhi murmured.

"What about that one," I said and pointed to a name where it said that departure would be in 15 minutes.

"What? I don't know about anything interesting there…" Haruhi mused, "why do you wanna go there?"

"Because it's leaving now," I answered with all honestly. Can't think of a convincing lie and I don't want to.

"Do you even know where that town is?" Haruhi asked and raised an eyebrow.

"No."

She gave me a skeptical look.

"Look…we don't have that much time if this is going to be a daytrip, do you want to spend it waiting in a train station? I'm sure we can find something to do once we arrive, I don't think traveling with you will ever turn boring."

Her skeptical look continued for a few moments before she allowed a subtle smile.

"You think such cheap flattery will melt me?" She said cheerfully, " And now you're trying to take command? I'm interested in seeing where that goes. Fine, we'll go to your town. This better be good!"

We hurried to the ticket counter. There was enough cash in that wallet I had just picked up to pay for both our tickets, which was lucky because I wouldn't want to open that bag in here or use my debit cart and leave a paper trail.

Escaping from these organizations shouldn't be this easy. Could it be they haven't noticed us being gone? Or could Koizumis group be locked in fighting and preventing them from following us? Maybe there was something bigger at work here…with the Data entities gone and the time travelers silent I'm really not sure what to make of this. I just hope Nagato and Asahina are all right…and I do hope Koizumi survives whatever he's up to now.

Wait. Could this be related to whatever Asahina was trying to warn me about the other day? She didn't give me much information, just 'don't put yourself in danger'. I'm going away from danger now so I'm hardly going against her warning…either way, I have to escape these people.

Maybe I'm worrying over nothing. This is just too easy, that's all.

We got on the train. It was actually a quite nice coach train and Haruhi and I got a whole room for ourselves, even if it was a small one. I sat down, just now realizing how sweaty and tardy I was after all that pedaling. The seat was quite comfortable and I allowed myself to take a rest. The train got started and in a few short moments we were going fast, me lounging lazily and Haruhi staring excitedly out the window. After a short but well deserved rest, I decided I needed and answer to the question 'what's in the bag that the president gave me?'

"I'm going to go the bathroom," I said and reached for my bag.

"You're talking your bag with you?" Haruhi asked

"Yes, I'm going to...go freshen up."

Haruhi grinned. "Looks like you need it!"

Yes, escaping from some sort of Esper conspiracy may result in tardiness.

"Just stay here, don't go anywhere."

"Go where? We're on a train Kyon," Haruhi said annoyed.

"Just…stay. Behave."

"Wait!" Haruhi yelled as I as leaving the room. I turned around to see her holding out my tie to me.

"You'll be needing this back," She said. I decided not to ask what she had in mind and accepted the tie.

I found the nearest bathroom, went in and locked the door behind me. Now the moment of truth. I zipped open the bag. I almost couldn't believe my eyes when saw what I saw.

What immediately caught my eyes where great big rolls of the almighty Yen. The Organization could really take that amount, shove it in a locker and leave it as a part of plan G? There were also envelopes along with the rolls. One marked 'Russian rubles', another marked 'Renminbis', 'Euros', 'Dollars'. The amounts in these envelopes weren't as generous as the Yens but more than enough to support us for two weeks at least, and the Yens…

Why the foreign currency? Did they honestly expect me to leave Japan? The next thing I noticed confirmed that. There where passports in the bag. A Russian one, Chinese, Japanese, American, French, British, South African, Brazilian, German, South Korean…two of each, 'Hers and his'. I opened one of the French ones. It had a photo of Haruhi. I glanced over the info. Nom(Surname): Modisette . Prenom(Given name): Audrey. Nationalité: Francaise. I'm guessing that means French. I put 'Audreys' passport back in the bag and picked up a Russian one. It had photo of me and the name Vladimir Davydov. I couldn't make out the Cyrillic letters, but it said in English that my claimed nationality was Russian.

What is this? Are we supposed to just blend into a country we've never even been to? I don't even speak a word of Russian and I don't really look like a Vladimir. Haruhi does however look like an Audrey, for what that's worth. I continued digging. I found a driver's license (A Japanese one and an Italian one, for some reason), credit cards, pepper spray, a small gps computer, an old cell phone, charger for the Taser...

I stopped digging when I found a notebook that had the title "Contacts". Its first page listed the contracts by categories. "Medical assistance. Weapons and defense. Law enforcement contracts. Forgers. Smugglers. Special skills..." I swallowed. This notebook listed number and location of various shady people and a brief description of each. It wasn't thick but had thin pages and small lettering. From a brief inspection I saw that it contained an impressive amount of information in such a modest book. I read the info on few of the contacts. Some were official Organization contacts. It when downhill from there and some were outright criminals that, according to the book, where competent in their field and would not ask questions given the right price. If the passports made me feel uneasy then I don't know how this made me feel. Overwhelmed seemed like an understatement.

I put the notebook back and rummaged some more. I found a small bag. I opened it an in it there where jewels. Necklaces, rings, earrings and a few gems. They did not look cheap. A tool for bartering or gifts for the goddess to keep her happy? Time would tell.

It was then that I finally noticed an envelope that had written "Contingency plan G" on it. I opened it and in it was a letter.

_If you're reading this that means that the Organization has utterly failed in ensuring the safety of Haruhi Suzumiya and Contingency plan G has been activated. Due to the nature of the circumstances that would cause this plan to be called into action we cannot give you details about what your next steps should be or even what our next steps will be. All that we can give you is the simple order "Take Suzumiya and run until your trail has gone cold, then disappear and stay gone" and give you the means to do so. In the bag you'll find a list of contacts. Depending on the circumstances you might wish to avoid exposing yourself to official Organization contacts and rather use unaffiliated specialists. Spend only what you have to. Do not resurface unless you are absolutely certain that the safety of Suzumiya can be guaranteed. We apologize if you've been thrust into this without much warning, but the success of this plan relies on the enemy not expecting it and therefore only a few people know this plan even exists. We know you've gotten into bad situations before and come through and we've every confidence in you carrying this out successfully._

Good grief…I'm way passed overwhelmed. What plan are they referring to? Run and hide while specifically avoiding us? This isn't a plan, it's a lack thereof. I honestly just tough they meant take her to small hotel a few towns over and stay there…and now it seems they expect me to leave the country or even the continent. Dammit, why has no one prepared me for this?

I closed the bag. Maybe there was something there I hadn't noticed but I honestly had seen all I could take in for now. I washed my face, for the sake of my cover story, put on my tie and left the bathroom.

In the hallway I ran into Fujiwara.

"You!" I declared once I realized who it was. My hand instinctively reached into my pocket and pulled out the taser. Fujiwara raised his hands.

"Whoa! Easy there, I don't have time to deal with your stupidity, just listen to me for a second!"

How did he find us? How does he even fit into this whole mess? I though we weren't being followed. That disgusting sneer of his is one of the last things I wanted to see here.

"I can tell by that idiotic expression on your face that you didn't expect to be followed," Fujiwara said, "it wasn't much of a challenge. I mean _seriously_, you leave the school through the _front gate_ and stay in your signature _school uniforms_? If it weren't for me you'd be in the back of a van by now or worse."

"What? What do you mean? First off, why would you help us?" I asked.

I kept the gun aimed at him. Wonder what part of the body would be most effective. Personally I'm going for the neck. Though the chest would be a better place to aim.

"I helped you for the only reason I could have for helping you, because it fit my agenda."

That I could believe.

"What do you mean it fits your agenda?"

"There was a predetermined event today that you were supposed to be a part of. It didn't happen," he said with a triumphant smirk.

"Didn't happen?" I said, "I don't understand. I though predetermined events always happened."

"Yes, but think for once in your life," he said with that condescending tone he has perfected, "If there was one and only one way to prevent a predetermined event from happening, only one thing that could possibly break the temporal flow like that, what would it be?"

I swallowed. The answer to that is painfully obvious. Haruhi Suzumiya.

I grabbed the Taser tighter. I'm going for the chest, may hurt less but I'm more confident in landing a hit there. I'm in no mood for this convoluted time traveling talk. Still, I guess I'd be stupid not to at least hear him out. I can just shoot him afterwards.

"You're saying Haruhi prevented something from happening?" I asked, "I don't understand…what event was supposed to happen? And what has this got to do with me?"

"Actually, there were two events predetermined," Fujiwara said, "One followed the other. One of these events was a fire at North High due to a freak accident involving the electrical system, a very unlikely accident but it did happen."

My heart sank. I fire at the school?

"And you prevented the fire?" I asked.

"No," He answered like he barely even cared, "It was the second predetermined event that I prevented."

Screw it, now I'm aiming for the face.

"There was a fire at my school and you let it happen! You…you Bastard!" I yelled at him, "Is anyone hurt? Is anyone…how bad was the fire!"

"I don't know what happens now as the timeline has diverged, I only know what was supposed to happen in which case it was a pretty bad fire. Even so we've got even bigger things to worry about."

"Bigger than my school burning down and my friends getting hurt!"

I was trying to keep my voice down but it was getting harder. My friends faces where now flashing in my mind. It was bad enough to have to worry so badly about Haruhi and the SOS brigade but now to worry about everyone?

"Yes, the timeline having diverged due to predetermined event not happening is bigger than that," Fujiwara explained impatiently, "You need to see that there are bigger things at stake here, if you're even capable of comprehending them."

The time traveler gave me the sneer of all sneers.

"The second predetermined event was your death in that fire," He said.

My hands gave away and the Taser now just aimed for the floor. I felt dizzy. He had to be lying. Why would I…was I supposed to be dead right now?

"Yes, when that fire broke out one of your friends got in danger. You tried to be a hero, rushed into the smoke and got yourself killed."

That does sound like me, stupid and noble.

"But…...why? How…...why would my death be predetermined?" I asked once I had gathered myself enough to form a relevant question.

"Because of the effects it had," Fujiwara explained, "The mark your death left on the future turned it into a key event. One that defined that era so it has to happen, predetermined."

"What…what you mean by that? Why would my death be some key event in history that simply has to happen?"

"I actually agree with you," Fujiwara said, "Your death should've gone by unnoticed by history, but Suzumiya didn't think so."

"…What did she do? Did she re-create the world?" I asked with all due apprehension, I don't like where this is going at all.

"Of course she didn't," Fujiwara scolded, "If the world was supposed to get overwritten today it wouldn't have a future for me to come from, now would it?"

"But…she threatens to overwrite it over the smallest things…" I muttered confused.

"Unfortunately, I don't have a window into that girls psyche," Fujiwara said, "but there has been a lot of speculation regarding this in the time I come from and there are a few theories. The one I happen to agree with is that any recreation by her would be a version of this world that has somehow been modified to fit whatever she thinks is better. If the world is boring she can make one that is more interesting, if the world is frustrating she can make one that is more agreeable to her. She could just apply whatever fix she thinks would work. That fact that she didn't recreate the world after your death was because she was convinced the world _couldn't_ be fixed. The world stopped being her playground and became a harsh and undeniable reality."

"I don't…couldn't she just resurrect me or create a world with me in it?" I asked. I hadn't planned on dying or getting severally hurt but Haruhi seems to prefer to have me in good health and I think that's the best health care plan one can have.

"If Suzumiya didn't believe death was permanent, it wouldn't be. At her core she's rational enough not to change something so fundamental, if she wasn't she would have made many more modifications to the world." Fuijwara said.

"So what _did_ she do?" I asked, making not attempt to hide the anger that was building up in me.

"She saw the world differently, and the world got reshaped accordingly. All over the world, whole societies got more cynical, pessimistic and downright unethical. That shift defined this era and had a cascading effect that led to many things turning…uglier than they should have. This is the timeline all time travelers come from."

"Wait…" This is getting far too…what's the word? Convoluted? Perplexing? Tangled? "You're saying you somehow made it so Haruhi _doesn't _reshape the world? How?"

"I told Tachibanas group about the predetermined event of the fire and they decided to use the confusion of the fire to strike. Normally it'd be impossible for them to plan something like that without getting noticed but the fire was different, it would happen on its own without warning and then they could just sweep in and advantage of the situation. They already had them on the ropes and the chaos of the fire would make the situation hopeless for your 'defenders'. I also made sure the Organization heard enough about it to strike back and get you out and thus unknowingly preventing your death, and I made sure they were just desperate and weak enough to send the two of you on your own and not do something stupid like make a stand at a building that's about to be set on fire. That's why I convinced Tachibana to do something that would cause defections and weaken the organization so they wouldn't trust their own people. Then I used the misplaced trust her group has in me to make sure they wouldn't find you but I messed one thing up. That's why I'm here."

"Wait, wait, let me get this straight…" I murmured, "You convinced Tachibana to kiss me to weaken the organization so they would be desperate enough to send Haruhi and me on our own, used your position to weaken their rivals so that they wouldn't be able to track us, and told them there would be a fire so they would attempt a strike today?"

"Yes, this is the accumulation of several do-overs."

Dammit.

I didn't ask for any of this.

"And…the timeline has diverged but you're still here?" I asked, although a part of me really didn't want to hear whatever reason there is for that.

"Yes…there aren't really any solid rules for what happens when a predetermined event doesn't happen," Fujiwara said, "It's like if a star suddenly no longer had a gravity well, it doesn't make sense and breaks whatever physics models you throw at it."

I just stared blankly at him for a few seconds.

"So…Haruhi _broke _time and now nothing makes sense?" I summarized.

"In short, yes." Fujiwara said, "but the temporal flow is dynamic enough to resolve itself and there are basically two things that can happen now; either Suzumiya reshapes the world like she was supposed to and the original timeline is more or less restored with some differences, or the divergence gets so great that the original timeline becomes an impossibility and gets overwritten."

"Why would she reshape…" I stopped talking as the realization hit me. Just as I though this couldn't get any worse. "You're saying my death will cause her to reshape the world even if it doesn't happen exactly it did originally? Killing me would restore the original timeline?"

"Yes, and enjoy your moment of being relevant to the happenings of the world," Fuijwara said dismissively, "The time travelers that sent Asahina to this timeplane still have a chance to restore their timeline before it gets overwritten, expect them to try."

"… the time travelers are trying to…kill me? The same group Asahina-san is from? I don't believe they would do that!"

"Don't judge that group just based of the Asahina you know, she has no say in anything," Fujiwara said and reassumed his sneer, "She's just a pawn that hasn't moved to the end of the table yet, unlike her older counterpart. As for her associates, wouldn't they kill you even to save their timeline? Everything and everyone they know? In their view unless you die and Suzumiya reshapes the world accordingly the world they know disappears and it can be prevented by killing someone who in their mind was supposed to die."

I fell completely silent.

"That's their nature," Fujiwara muttered crossly, and I could tell he wasn't really directing his anger at me, "Interfering with other timeplanes no matter the damage they do, doing whatever they feel they have to no matter what and ruining the temporal plane by bending time… It's extremely likely that the grim atmosphere of the world when time travel was invented was the direct result of Suzumyias alterations and because if that their methods are what they are. Their mindset is simply warped. If she never changes the world and that timeline gets overwritten then the damage they have done gets undone and I have my life back. There is of course a chance I'm never even born in the new timeline but that's a chance I'm willing to take."

There was a short silence. I couldn't…how can this still be getting worse? Do I believe him? I don't see any reason for him to lie or any huge gaps in his story but still...

"Why wouldn't the time travelers just re-do today?" I asked, "You know, make sure I'd get killed today when I was supposed to, _apparently_."

"The situation surrounding that school is _very _volatile, as I intended it to be," Fujiwara said, "because Suzumiya is involved and with different factions circling in, it's a very unpredictable situation and that's not something a time traveler wishing to fix something gets into. A far better tactic is to catch you off-guard later. That's why you need to disappear."

He just summed it up for me. I don't have to think about time travelers hunting me, organizations fighting over me or Data entities doing something beyond my comprehension. All I have to do is hide and maybe, just maybe, this will all blow over.

"You don't know anything about the Data entities?" I asked hopeful.

"They didn't disappear in the original timeline," Fujiwara said, some frustration in his voice, "I don't know what they're up to…I think I may have stirred up a hornets nest here but that remains to be seen, timeline alteration is the priority now."

"I…see…" I don't think his priorities match mine…

"I can see I have told you everything you can process for now," Fujiwara said, "and I don't want to overload your monkey brain because I need you to use it. You had the good sense to show up in a train station near the school wearing your school uniform. Didn't you notice the security cameras?"

"…no."

"Your pursuers have the means to access them and they could certainly pick you out from the crowd, see which train you got on and have people placed at your destination. They've caught on to the fact that _someone _with access to their communications is working against them so they've cut their communications, so I don't know what they're up to anymore. Instead I arranged for this train to get stopped in a few minutes. Take Suzumyia, get to the door at the very end of the train, which I have unlocked, and get out the second the train stops."

"…how did you arrange-"

"Time travel," Fujiwara shot at me as if that explained anything.

"Once you're out, head east, the direction the sun rises from, you'll find a town a couple of kilometers away. I can't babysit you and fight a war so for now it's best if I you stay out of everyone's reach. Just try to do a better job of hiding."

"but…"

"You're almost out of time, go."

At that moment I decided I believed him. He had no reason to make all that up just to get me off a train so he could spring some sort of a trap on me. If this all was a trap it was needlessly elaborate. I also believed him that my pursuers really could have placed people at my destination. I turned and ran towards the cabin I left Haruhi in.

"Haruhi, come with me," I said and walked on without her. She followed.

"Kyon? What is it?" Haruhi said, "You were gone for a long time…did something happen?"

"Just…follow me."

I walked to the end of the train. There was indeed a door there, one that could be opened from the inside, and better yet there wasn't anybody there…what are the odds of that?

"What are we doing here?" Haruhi said confused and looked around, "You have something planned?"

"Hang on a second," I said and looked out the window to the east…you could indeed see a town in the distance, across a large field, though it was probably more than two kilometers away.

After a few moments, the train stopped.

"Follow me!" I called to Haruhi and opened the door.

"What!" she yelled at me surprised, "What do you think you're doing!"

"Come on," I said and jumped out the door, "The train will keep going any second now."

After staring at me like I had gone mad for a few moments she walked to me and hesitantly climbed down. Once her feet where on the ground I began walking towards the town. Haruhi followed. Less than a minute after that, the train kept going.

"You want to explain what we're doing?" Haruhi asked sternly, "What town is that? What's its name?"

"I don't know…You'll see what we're doing. Just follow me," I said. A pathetic excuse but she didn't call me out on it for now.

Haruhi and I walked across the huge field for several minutes, towards the east like I had been instructed. The grass was quite tall so we had to wade our way through it. There was a slow wind, with occasional sharp gusts. We were surrounded by the sound of insects, the sound of grass and leaves moving in the wind, the sound of birds singing in the distance...if the circumstances were different this would have been a very calming place.

We were moving at a steady pace. Haruhi has always had more endurance than me so she was less worn down but I could still hear that she was breathing more heavily than at the beginning of our walk. As for me; my shirt was now sticking to me because of the sweat which, combined with the coldness of the sudden gusts, was getting quite uncomfortable. I imagine Haruhi was dealing with the same problem, though I dared not turn around and take a better look.

Suddenly, Haruhi stopped in her tracks.

"Kyon," She said sternly.

"What? We need to get to that town," I said without stopping, "Come on!"

"No**,**" She replied in anger, crossed her hands and glared at me. "I honestly don't know why I followed you this far, but now I'm not taking another step."

I stopped, made a heavy sigh and turned around to face her.

"What? We don't have time for any pointless delays," I said impatiently.

"Why?" Haruhi asked sharply, "Why did you demand that we jump out of that train when it suddenly stopped? Why are we walking to some random small town when you told me we would be going by train to the next city? Why are you in such a hurry to get to _nowhere_?"

"We…I'll explain later. Come on, we need keep moving," I said.

She ignored my plea and extended her hand out towards me.

"Give me the bag," She demanded.

"…why?" I said and instinctively grabbed the straps of the bag tighter.

"You keep holding on to that bag, never letting it out of your sight. You're giving it more attention than me. You're being stubborn and are obviously not going to tell me anything willingly so maybe what's in the bag will tell me what you're planning. The bag won't lie**.**"

"Look…it's just stuff you'd need for a trip…Of course I'd pack a bag with all the necessities! You're being childish," I scolded.

"Then you wouldn't mind me looking into the bag, so give it over," Haruhi insisted and kept her hand extended as if she expected me to hand it over at this instant.

"Just follow me and I'll explain everything once we've found a place to rest. Trust me on this," I said, not attempting to hide my impatience. I was in no mood to waste time on thinking of a convincing lie for her right now.

"No," She said firmly. "I'm not taking another step until I know what's going on. I thought you were going to take me on a fun trip like you said but now I don't know what the hell you're planning. If you don't hand over the bag I'm turning around, following the train tracks back to the nearest station and going home."

"You don't mean that," I said with defiance.

"Why shouldn't I turn back? You said this was just a daytrip but you seem to have more planned and I don't like where this trip is going. You clearly misled me and I'm _not _happy about it. So go ahead, call my bluff, walk on and see if I follow."

For a minute we just stared each other down. Me clenching my hands around the straps of the bag with defeat in my eyes, she holding out her hand with a quiet fire burning in her eyes.

She really would turn back wouldn't she? I think I've overstepped what her trust in me will allow...I'm losing control here. The fire at the school, the news of my planned death, the all-out war that has erupted with the organizations, disappearance of the entities…My brain is far too overloaded and stressed to think my way out of this. If that oblivious fool goes off on her own she'll get captured and then it's all over. I can't let that happen, and I think she really means what she's saying…God knows she's stubborn enough to follow thought with it. This has gotten way out of hand and this is simply too big to hide completely from Haruhi.

I began a slow walk of shame towards Haruhi while she stood there like a statue. An angry, demanding, fierce statue. When I got close enough to her I handed her the bag with an outstretched hand, leaving me about two-arms lengths from her. I don't think that'll be outside of the blast radius once she opens the bag and sees what's in it. She instantly put the bag on the ground by her feet, got on her knees and zipped it open.

I couldn't see her face as she was taking in the contents of the bag and she didn't make a sound. She didn't touch anything, just stared into the bag for the longest time. The multiple passports, the rolls of money in several currencies, the state-of-the-art taser, the rest of the gadgets, almost everything was in plain view. After her moment of comprehension was over she slowly turned her head up and stared at me with wide eyes.

"What…what _is _all this." She asked, completely stunned.

"It's…You could say that this is my emergency-only bag," I tried to explain as if any of that was even remotely normal.

"But…" She continued, clearly overwhelmed, "I don't know what I was expecting but…not _this_!"

She stuck a hand down the bag and gabbed out a roll of Yens. "How much money do you have here!" she said and examined the roll close to her face.

"I'm not really sure," I said apologetically.

"You don't..." Haruhi drifted off for a few seconds, and then turned her attention back to the bag. She grabbed one of the passports and read it, an American one I think. Her eyes widened even further as she was reading it.

"That's a picture of me!" Haruhi yelled at me in disbelieve, stood up and pointed at her opened passport. "It says my name is Summer Halleck and I was born in California! Is this real? Why do you have forged passports?"

"Just…you know, in case," I said**, **but I don't think that meager excuse will do**.**

"In case of what! And why so many? Do you have different identities? Is Kyon even your real name?"

"You _know _it isn't!" I shot at her.

"Then what is your-" She yelled before she cut herself off and I could see the gears turning in her head. "Oh, right. I guess Kyon isn't your legal name," She admitted. She then glared at me like I had betrayed or harmed her somehow.

"_Who _are you?" she said, looking at me as if I were a stranger.

"I'm still the same Kyon you've known for over a year, Haruhi," I said.

"The Kyon I know doesn't have a bag full of passports, money and how knows what else!" Haruhi accused.

I took one step towards her with the intention of closing the bag before a sharp wind would blow any of the contents of the bag away. Haruhi instantly flinched and took a step back.

"Don't come any closer!" She commanded nervously, "Explain yourself! What are you planning and why did you take me with you out here to such a remote place? What have you gotten yourself mixed up in? What _is_ all this?"

I thoughtlessly took another step towards her as a sharp wind struck and one of the money rolls fell out of the bag.

"Stay back!" Haruhi yelled, snatched my taser from the bag and pointed it at me.

"Wait, don't! You're overreacting, I'm not a danger to you!" I said startled.

"Hah! I'm not taking this because I need it to defend myself, I'm taking this because it'll _hurt _if I use it," Haruhi said to me coldly, her amazement had apparently worn off and her fierceness was back with a vengeance. "You dragged me out to the middle of nowhere only for me to find out you've been lying to me this whole time, for the past year even. I'm not overreacting, tasing you down is the proportional response!"

… By what logic?

I raised my hands at her as if that would calm her down. I'm not used to be at the business end of that weapon.

"Calm down, I can explain all of this," I said in my best attempt at soothing tone.

"I'd like to hear you try," Haruhi hissed and fixed her aim at me. She's probably debating with herself which part of my body to go for.

"About a year back, about a month after we met, I stumbled into something I shouldn't have," I said. My voice was suddenly a lot more relaxed than it should be under the circumstances, although 'resigned' could've been a better word for it. I guess I had just accepted my fate, there's no way of hiding the fact that something's going on from her. All I have to do is to decide how much of the truth I'm going to tell her.

"What do you mean? That's too vague! Explain yourself properly," Haruhi yelled at me, finger still ready at the trigger.

"Relax. I'm getting to it. I can't tell you what I saw, but because of what I witnessed and what I did in response to it I caught the interest of an international organization specializing in…strange phenomena," I explained, "They had the option of making me forget but instead they decided to recruit me."

"What? You expect me to believe that? You? Recruited by an international organization as some secret agent? I seem to recall you severely injuring yourself when you attempted to walk down _a flight of stairs,_" Haruhi said with clear disbelieve.

"Anyone can slip and fall…but that's beside the point. My unique experience made me a candidate for the organization, but it also made me a target for their rivals because of what I had seen and done. And now this morning they decided to make a move and try to abduct me. But I caught wind of it before they struck and managed to get away," I explained. This was a half-lie, but I think it'll do.

Haruhi stared at me for a while with a strange look like I had just gone insane, glancing a few times at the contents of the bag.

"And what did you see?" She asked skeptically, as if she was just humoring me.

"What I saw and what I know made me a target. I can't tell it you anything," I said like I was apologizing for something.

"Okay," She said firmly, "Let's say for the moment that this is at least partially true. Why did you take me on your dash for freedom?"

She's asking for a truth that I can't tell to her. What lie can I tell her now…aren't the best lies the ones that make you look bad or make the one you're lying to look good? I think I'll use that.

"Because they would've used you to get to me. If I hadn't taken you with me they would've abducted you and blackmailed me," I said.

For a second Haruhi viewed me suspiciously, then for a moment her expression turned kinder before it returned to her familiar frown.

"I don't believe that. If anyone wanted to blackmail you they wouldn't have to go for me. Your sister, your parents, or even some of your good friends would suffice. I've seen the way your protective instincts get all fired up around Mikuru and Yuki**. **You'd never just take me and leave the others to their fate,_" _Haruhi accused and narrowed her eyes at me.

"I planned their escape beforehand, others have made sure they're safe," I improvised.

"Shut up," Haruhi snapped at me, "I've already caught you lying so don't dig yourself deeper. You didn't know which city you wanted to go to and let me decide, you had no convincing cover story and you just lead me on a hurried escape from a train that had to stop in the middle of nowhere and now we're walking to a town neither of us has ever even heard of before. You didn't plan any of this, you idiot."

She got me there…

Her anger faded as she gave me that lecture and she lowered the taser. Her face turned into one of determination with some weariness thrown in.

"Tell me the truth," She said. She was partially begging me and partially ordering me. That's a tone that I've never seen anybody but her pull off. Of course, any demand from her is an order. "This is your last chance before I leave you here electrocuted," She threatened.

I took a good look at our surroundings as I was thinking of what to say next. This really was a calm place, beautiful even. This landscape looks like a piece of art. Perhaps someday I will commission a painting of this standoff. It will include this magnificent nature around us and in the middle of all Haruhi will stand, pointing a taser at me with fire in her eyes. I shall call it 'The end of the lie'.

The status quo is broken, it's beginning to sink in now that we can't just go back to our lives without a fight and I'm though being pushed around by these factions while living under the regime of a dictator that is completely oblivious to the dangers around her. We'll never get through this with Haruhi completely unaware so I'm just going to end this charade that everything's normal and fine, It's more of a burden than an advantage now.

"Fine," I conceded.

"Fine?" Haruhi repeated crossly.

"I'll tell you the truth," I said. "I wasn't lying when I said there was an attempted abduction this morning. I wasn't the target. You were."

"…what? What do you mean, why would anyone abduct me?" Haruhi asked, clearly not buying my story**.**

"I said I stumbled into something I shouldn't have a year ago, that wasn't a lie," I said, "It was after I met you, and that wasn't a coincidence. It was _because _of you that it happened. That strange phenomenon…you _caused _it**.**"

Haruhi stared at me in disbelief. "What do you mean? How…I'm not…"

"There's something strange and powerful locked within you. We don't understand it yet but it's valuable if anyone can tap into it. That's why people are after you and that's why I had to convince you to come with me. This trip was basically just one hasty and poorly planned escape."

"But…what you're saying is…how does that even…" Haruhi looked down, her face was one of sheer confusion.

"Haruhi," I said, mirroring her firm tone at the beginning of this conversation "You've always been able to catch me in a lie. Look me in the eyes and tell me, am I lying now?"

She looked up to face me, her apprehension increasing as what I had said began to sink in. I can't really describe the look on her face right now, but it's a piece of art all on its own.

Did I tell her too much? No. She needs to know this. She needs to know that there are people after her and that she's valuable to some people. We can't go into hiding without her knowing this, and we need to go deep into hiding.

For a moment we both stood there in silence. Haruhi barely even moved, just stared into the distance.

Suddenly, her face showed anger and she turned to face me.

"Is this your idea of a joke?" She accused.

"This is as serious as it gets," I said firmly.

"Do you think you can toy with me like this!" Haruhi yelled at me.

"I'm not toying with you," I said in the same tone that a lion tamer speaks to an agitated beast, "Everything I said was true."

"You have ten seconds to give me even a slightest proof of what you just told me," Haruhi demanded, walked up to me and grabbed my tie. "Ten!" She yelled into my face.

"What kind of proof?" I asked, I was trying to keep my head but when she gets like that…have to be careful what I say, even if I end the charade I can't tell her everything.

"Nine!"

"The stuff I've got in the bag has to be-"

"Not good enough, Eight!"

"Just give me time to-"

"Your time's running out, Seven!"

"You're not being very-"

"Six!"

"What are you planning to-"

"You'll see, Five!"

"I don' have any-"

"Four!"

"Look, you have to-"

"Three!"

"Just calm down and-"

"Two!"

"I'm John Smith"

"On-"

Haruhi cut herself off and stared at me with a face of gradually building astonishment.

"What…" She muttered completely stunned, "What did you say…?"

"I'm…I'm John Smith" I repeated. "The man that helped you write that message on the school yard when you were in middle school. The message that read 'I am here'. "

"You…how did you…I never told you. I never told anyone…" She murmured nervously and let go of my tie. Her face was one of complete bafflement. She backed away from be as her knees began to give away.

"Is it really…All this time…" she said with a weak voice before her knees completely gave up on her and she fell down to the ground.

Wait, she actually fainted? She did almost faint the last time I told her this, and back then she was nowhere near as tired and worn out but I still didn't expect her to lose consciousness…How long do you stay down once you faint? Few seconds? A minute? Fifteen minutes? At the risk of sounding malicious I'd rather she'd stay down for a while so I can relax a bit after this. It also makes traveling with her a lot easier even if I have to carry her.

I bowed down on my knee and zipped closed the bag, remembering to pick up the things that the wind had blown out of it. Then I placed the strap of the bag on my shoulder.

Haruhi is still out cold. It doesn't feel right to just stand here with my hands in my pockets over her lying in the ground. I sighed…we need to keep moving and she probably wouldn't be happy if she woke up in lying in the dirt with me standing over her doing nothing…

After a brief moment of maneuvering her unconscious body, without taking improper advantage of the opportunity, I had managed to place her resting on my back with her hands resting over my shoulders and legs held along my sides. Then I walked on, enjoying this brief peaceful moment.

So now it happened, she knows there's something special about her and she knows I'm involved with powerful factions. It's not the whole truth but it's enough for her to understand.

She didn't force it out of me. I could've found some lie but instead I made the decision to tell her the half-truth. I did it because we're talking our lives back and I can't do it without her, and she can't help me if she doesn't understand what's going on. There's a daunting road ahead, but with the help of the Brigade and with Haruhi on my back I feel like I have a legitimate chance. I'm done with pretending to be an ordinary high school student.

Suddenly Haruhis arms moved up my chest and she held me tighter for a moment, then I could feel her head move against the side of my neck and her hold on me loosened as she made a labored sigh. I didn't stop though I could tell she was conscious, just kept carrying her in silence. After about a minute or two of this, Haruhi finally spoke.

"Kyon," she said with an uncharacteristically weak voice.

"Yes?"

"Put me down, we need to talk."

* * *

><p>AN: As usual I'd appreciate any feedback on my writing. On a side note, on the story plan I have this chapter marks the end of the "Escalation" arc and begins the "Hidden" arc. (Couldn't find a way to shoehorn the arc names in so I'll just leave them here.) I'm aware there are probably some inaccuracies regarding how trains work but I never use them and did a limited amount of homework on them.<p> 


	5. Hiding In Plain Sight

**April 18th. Friday Afternoon. Location unclear. **

I carefully bowed down to allow Haruhi to dismount, which she did slowly like she didn't trust her own feet yet. But once she had both legs on the ground she assumed a firm position, just the slightest bit wobbly at first.

"Are you alright?" I asked with genuine concern as I stood up, I'm not used to seeing Haruhi this vulnerable. She didn't answer, just stared at me silently. The look on her face was still one of stunned amazement, like a child meeting Santa Claus. She placed her hand over my face and ran it across my forehead and cheeks, as if to examine it like she was blind.

"Is it really you?" She asked cautiously. "You…you're really him? I didn't get a good look that night but I always thought you two were similar…but that was 4 years ago…"

Her face of amazement turned into one of apprehension as the implication of that fact sank in.

"But…you…John Smith was about your age when I met him all those years ago…"

I've told her everything I can get away with. I simply cannot confirm the existence of time travel to her. She has to have some slither of ambiguity, some crack that her rationality can wedge its way through and prevent her mind from running loose. It's the only way this gambit of mine can work.

"I can't tell you everything," I said carefully, knowing how this answer might rub her he wrong way, "I'd like to point out that we're still on the run and I don't think it's a good idea to be giving lengthy explanations out here in an open field. I know it's a lot to ask right now, but can you just trust me and follow me?"

"Trust you?" Haruhi asked, "I let you drag me all the way here before I started to ask questions, isn't that enough?"

"No, I need to get you to a hotel or something. Somewhere we can stay out of sight, indoors."

"But…I don't understand…" Haruhi murmured, "how _can_ you be John smith? I thought he'd be in his twenties by now…"

"I said there's something special locked within you?" I asked her, keeping my cautious tone like a doctor explaining a bad diagnosis to patient, "If I tell you too much that special something might get…unlocked."

"I don't understand," Haruhi pleaded, "What on earth are you talking about? Something _special_?"

"It's…hard to explain. Basically, if I tell you too much I'd be giving you the key to unlocking that. You won't be able to help yourself, and then what's safely locked within you might…get out."

Haruhi stared at me blankly for a while, and then her face turned to anger.

"That's the most convoluted excuse I've ever heard, even from you!" She accused, some of her vigor returning.

"Yeah I know…sorry but it's the only one I can give you," I said apologetically.

Haruhi stared at me with a look in her eyes that made it clear she was not at all satisfied with my answers.

"Just tell me this…" She said, "Are you…you know…_human_?"

"Sorry to disappoint, I know how much you wanted to date an esper or an alien, but I'm just an ordinary human," I said.

"It didn't have to be esper or alien…just someone interesting, and out of all the words I have to describe you now, _boring _certainly isn't one of them." Haruhi said and looked to her side with pout.

"Glad I can meet your standards." I said.

"You're under evaluation!" She shot at me. "So, you're not going to tell me how you appeared before me 4 years ago the same age you are now? Or why you did?"

"I can't."

"You're not going to tell me what strange phenomenon you claim caused you to get recruited by a powerful organization? You're not going to tell me what you say I caused or how I did it?"

"I already explained, I can' tell you that."

"You won't tell me just who these people are you've gotten yourself involved with?"

"I can explain that better once we've found a place to stay."

"And you won't tell me just what it is you say I have locked inside of me?"

"I don't really understand it myself."

Haruhi stared at me thoughtfully for a moment, this time I was the one that broke the silence

"Do you believe me?" I asked.

"I'm thinking…" She mused, "The contents of that bag prove that you really are involved with some powerful people, I know you didn't gather this yourself because know you'd never be this thorough.…You being John Smith proves that there's something weird going on with you…but this 'something locked within you' business…that just too much to take in," She said, clearly perplexed.

I thought it might be…

"Okay, how about this," I said, trying to sound reasonable, "if you can't believe me can't you trust when I say that you really are in danger and I really am looking out for you, and that I honestly can't tell you too much. I've already said more than you're supposed to know."

"Supposed to know?" Haruhi repeated and raised an eyebrow, "You make it sound planned…have you been keeping things away from me?"

"…Yes, I had to," I admitted.

Haruhi narrowed her eyes at me and frowned fiercely.

"And after admitting that, you're asking me to follow you blindly?" she accused.

"That's really what you've been doing so far," I said.

"And look where it got me," Haruhi said and gestured at our surroundings.

For moment she was silent. She looked like she was thinking about something so I didn't interrupt her, I wasn't having much luck explaining this to her in a way that she'll accept.

"Okay. Fine. I'll follow you for now, despite the gigantic holes in your story, which I expect you to fill in time," Haruhi finally said determined, "but there are two conditions!"

"I guess that's fair…what are they?" I asked, knowing that these 'conditions' she spoke of would in fact be demands.

"Condition one!" Haruhi declared and put her hand in a fist right in front of my face with only her index finger pointing up.

"You say you've had to keep me in the dark about some things, but now you've apparently decided that it's better that I know. So from now on I want you to tell me everything. If you want me to follow you, you can't keep anything away from me anymore!" Haruhi said with clear determination, reassuming her leadership role.

"Condition two!" She lifted up her middle finger. "You say I have…_something _locked within me…I don't really understand what you mean by that, because you won't tell me, but now you say that there are some people after me because they want to make use of it…if that's true…then I'm not some commodity, I won't be used as a tool, a weapon or a resource, you got that!"

"Yeah, sure…"

"Condition three!" She lifted up her ring finger.

"But you said-"

The look on her face shut me up.

"Condition three!" She repeated impatiently, "You say that there's some sinister plot going on around us, if that's true and I agree to go with you then you must see this through to the end! Don't leave me with your associates, don't give up halfway and don't you dare abandon me at some sleazy hideout!"

"You got all that?" she asked, like a drill sergeant breaking a recruit.

"Yes. Don't lie to you, don't use you as a tool and follow you to the end of this," I recited, "I accept those terms."

Haruhi gave me a scrutinizing stare.

"Good."

We stood there for a while, both unsure how to proceed. This is weird…What must she be thinking? I just sprung on hell of a surprise on her and I really am asking a lot of her, and to be brutally honest I think that Organization expects far too much from me. Add onto that Haruhis demands. We're both far out of our comfort zone.

"So, what's your plan?" Haruhi asked.

"I was thinking we'd go to that town over there," I said and pointed towards the town, the nearest building couldn't have been more than a kilometer away.

"Why?" She asked.

"Because it's the nearest town," I answered.

"Why didn't we go where we were headed? Why did we have to leave the train?" She asked.

"Because there was a chance there was an ambush waiting for us at our destination," I admitted.

"What? Ambush?" Haruhi repeated, "What are you talking about? Just who are these people who are after us?"

"I…I can't really tell you, other than I don't think they'll stop there," I said.

"And…you could just make the train stop? Is that why you were gone for so long before you dragged me out of our cabin?" She asked and raised an eyebrow at me.

I didn't drag you, you followed me…but sure, I'll take credit for that.

"Yes," I said, can't really explain that is was done by a time traveler. I don't even know how he did it…

She just stared at me skeptically for a while, until I broke the silence.

"I was thinking we'd go to some store, buy traveling cases, a new set of clothes and something to eat. Then we will check into a hotel."

Haruhi focused her skeptical look on me.

"You're planning to check me into a hotel?" She said, "That's the first place your mind goes to? Don't tell me this whole thing is an elaborate ruse to lure me into a hotel room with you?"

"_You're_ gonna lecture _me_ about pretexts?" I retorted, "I was thinking we'd take separate rooms anyway…people might think it improper if we'd check into a hotel together."

Haruhi's skeptical look intensified, but she turned it away from me and walked onwards past me.

"Get your head out the gutter," She shot at me as she passed me by, "Come on, lets get to that town while all the stores are still open."

Took her long enough to take the lead again...I chased after her.

"Just so you know," Haruhi said without turning her head, but in a volume that was clearly directed at me, "This conversation is _not _over. It's just on hold while we find a place to stay. You have _a lot _of explaining to do."

"Yes, Dear."

Haruhi and I found our way into town and got directions to the nearest shopping center from some of the locals. It didn't take long to find it, it wasn't an impressive building but it had a few dozen shops and at a glance had all we needed. Our first stop was a sports outlet where we picked out two big traveling cases, the kind that has wheels at the bottom, and bought them. As I was paying for them I nearly pulled out the entire roll of yens but decided to try to inconspicuously take a decent amount of yens out of the bag without any bystanders seeing its contents.

"I was thinking…if we have to be gone for long, don't I have to call home to let them know I'm alright?" Haruhi asked once we were out of the sports store, "Shouldn't we also call the brigade to check on them?"

"I'm sure they're fine…" I said, although I wasn't, "but I think the people after us could track down our phones so you should turn yours of."

"I see…you better be sure!" She said, reached into her pocket for her cell phone and turned it off. "but we gotta find some way to let our parents know we're fine."

"I'll think of something" I said. She's right, I'll have to think of some way…didn't Nagato tell me my phone couldn't be tracked? Maybe I'll just call Koizumi or even my parents…

"You better…so, you said something about new clothes?" Haruhi asked.

"Yes, we can't walk around in our school uniforms," I said, put down my bag, reached into it and took out something in the area of 40-50 thousand yens.

"Here," I said and handed the money to Haruhi, "think this'll be enough for you?"

She accepted the money and counted it quickly. "I guess I can work with that," she said.

"Good, I think we should split up while we shop for clothes so we can do it quickly," I suggested.

I hurried and picked out a few pieces of everything. Just jeans, plain shirts, underwear and so on, then I found myself a new jacket, paid for everything, got dressed into a new set of clothes and stuffed the rest, including my school uniform, into the case. I then proceeded to walk back to the store I had left Haruhi, were I found her browsing through a rack of blouses.

"Are you about done?" I asked her once she noticed me.

"I've picked these two out," Haruhi said and waved a couple of shirts at me.

"Just two? Could you hurry this along…please," I said without letting my impatience shine through too much, "We'll be in hiding for some time now so just…can't you just pick something plain and be done with it?"

"I picked you, didn't I?" Haruhi muttered without turning her attention away from the clothes rack, "just give me some space, I'll be with you in a minute."

As much as I wanted to know just what she meant by that remark of hers, I let it go and walked out of the store. I took a seat at a bench nearby and stared blankly at the people passing for a few moments and let my thoughts wander. It was getting harder to ignore just how lost I am right now. I don't even know what town we're in…and the events of the day...The disappearance of the data entities was unsettling on many levels, the silence and now alleged murderous intent of the time travelers was hard to process, and it was getting harder and harder not to think about the fire at the School. Come to think of it, what must my family be thinking, me disappearing right after a fire…and what will they think if this goes on for long, and their son stays gone for days? Weeks? Longer?

I have to know what happened at school, if there really was a fire…if something did happen it would be on the news wouldn't it? I looked around and saw an internet café. I stood up and walked into the store that I had left Haruhi in.

"Hey, Haruhi?" I called out to her once I found her. She was facing away from me but the instant I called out to her she grabbed whatever she was holding closer to her like I had startled her and she quickly turned her neck around.

"What!" She snapped at me, "I told you to give me a minute!"

Why is she blushing…"Er, I just wanted to let you know I'll be going to the internet café here close by…"

"Fine! Just go!" Haruhi said annoyed and turned her attention back to whatever she was holding. The lady at the counter gave me a strange look as I walked out of the store.

After a few minutes I had paid for an hour online at the café, not that I would need that much time, and was entering in the web address of one of the local news stations. Once I was done I didn't immediately press enter. A feeling came over me like the one you get just before you check your grade on an exam you did poorly on or opening your mailbox when you expect bad news. Only this time the feeling was a thousand fold worse. After a few moments of hesitating I pressed enter.

The first thing I noticed on that webpage confirmed it. Big headline; Fire at North High. I scrolled down the page…dozen students rushed to nearby hospital, no names can be released at this point. I scanned though the article looking for anything helpful but found nothing.

I took a brief minute to search for info about local hotels before I logged out, left the café and turned on my phone.

Nagato told me that my phone couldn't be tracked so it has to be all right to call. I have to know if everybody's alright. I picked Koizumi out of my list of contacts and called him. He answered almost immediately.

"You shouldn't have called." He said

"I'm sorry, I had to."

"It's alright, I shouldn't have answered either. You're supposed to have disappeared and we're to have no contact with you until we've done some…internal housecleaning. We need to keep this brief, are you and Suzumiya safe?"

"We are, we're-"

"Stop. Don't tell me anything else no matter how vague. Knowing that you're both safe is enough and I don't know who could be listening."

"I should tell you, my phone has been modified by Nagato…she said it couldn't be monitored anymore."

"I see…the data entities are still absent so I wouldn't rely too heavily on that, we really don't understand anything at all about their technology. Did you call about anything specific?"

"I'm calling about the fire…Is everyone…" I couldn't ask the question.

"I am fine. As you know Nagato was absent from school and as it turns out, so was Asahina. Tsuruya has also been accounted for, she did end up with some smoke poisoning but not a bad case, she'll recover completely and quickly. The rest of your class has mostly been accounted for, and we don't think any of those rushed to the hospital were your classmates."

There are few words for the relieve I felt once I heard that.

"But…those rushed to the hospital…is anyone seriously hurt or…worse?"

"We honestly don't know, information gathering from the hospital has not been a priority since your class was accounted for and most of that information has not been made public."

"I see…I had another question…what about our families? My family and the Suzumiya household?"

"It seems your rivals had everything set on capturing you so your families weren't really in any danger. After you fled we set in motion a contingency plan, basically we staged an Yakuza crime in front of your fathers and then, using the aid of our allies in the police force, we rushed them into what they believe to be a witness protection program of some sort but is in reality just house arrest at an undisclosed location. Your mothers and your sister were brought along. Of course any lawyer or policeman would see though that charade but men with little experience in these things, like your fathers, usually seem to just play along if the safety of their family is at stake. They've been told that the two of you were seen leaving the school before the fire and that the police are looking for you, so they should not be too worried. Not for the first day at least. But I assure you the police we're working with haven't reported you as missing to their collogues. We pressed our luck by asking our contacts in the police to tell your parents one thing and then ignore it but for now they're going along with it."

"Okay…thank you for that…really. But…you trusted your allies with our families when you couldn't even ask them to escort me and Haruhi?"

"For your parents we used our allies in the police force, most of whom are not aware of Suzumiyas power and have no reason to have defected. However, had we decided to use them to secure the two of you our Rivals might have been alerted one we contracted the police and simply rushed their plans and abducted you before the police could do anything, or worse they might have fought the police and made that whole standoff even uglier, undoubtedly exposing Organization ties to in the process and severely hurting us in the long run. It was an option, but we took a gamble on you and it paid off."

"I see…Feels like you're giving me too much credit."

"I'm afraid I have to end this conversation now as I'm not even supposed to be talking to you at all, you're supposed to be completely off the grid, I hope that was all you needed to know because it's all I can tell you though this line."

"I understand…goodbye."

"Bye, stay safe," and with those words he hung up. I shut of my cell phone again.

I then walked back to the bench in front of that clothing store where the divine one was hand picking her clothes. After about twenty minutes of waiting she finally came out. Maybe it was the stark contrast between seeing her in a dirty school uniform and then a few moments later dressed in her handpicked skirt-and-blouse but…she looked better than she has in a while, wearing a white blouse with some patterns near the neckline and a yellow skirt.

"Well?" She asked ecstatic once she had gotten within arm's reach of me and put her hands on her hips. I couldn't think of anything to say but after a few seconds Haruhi giggled pleased, apparently satisfied with my idiotic stare as an answer.

There is one other thing…

"Haruhi…your ribbon," I said

"What about it?" She asked and lifted her hand, adjusting her ribbon although it had been on perfectly.

"We're supposed to be in hiding and…you've had that thing on for everyday for over a year now," I said, "I makes it sort of easy to pick you out in a crowd, if you know what you're looking for."

"I guess you're right…fine!" She said, took her ribbon of in one shift practiced motion and shoved it in my chest, "If you had any distinguishing features I'd ask you to remove them as well!"

"Why are you handing it to me?" I asked her and took a hold of the ribbon with one hand.

"It'll either be a good luck charm or something to remember me by, we'll see," She said nonchalantly, turned around and walked on.

I quickly stashed her ribbon into the outer compartment of my bag and chased after her.

"Where are you going?" I asked her once I caught up to her.

"I thought I saw a cosmetics store when we walked in," Haruhi said absently and kept looking around.

"What? You're thinking about makeup now?" I asked her, mildly annoyed by this distortion of priorities.

She stopped and gave me an ugly look.

"You said we needed to blend in?" She asked, "If we'll be hiding in towns and cities then cosmetics is how you blend in. No one is giving us a second look now but when we arrived here in dirty uniforms, did you see the looks we got?"

I honestly didn't, but I'm not going to argue with her on this.

"Frankly," she said and gave me a stern look, "I was going to shop for you there too, who knows how you'll end up looking in a few days, a teenage boy on the road without adult supervision!"

I just gave her a wary stare, reached into my pocket for the remains of my clothes money and handed it to her.

"Just be quick," I said resigned.

To her credit she only took a few minutes in the cosmetics store while I waited outside, she came back with a full bag of…something. I conceded to her greater knowledge in this field and didn't ask her about the contents of the bag.

"Anything else you wanna buy?" I asked her once she returned.

"Nah, I'm good, for now," she said, "Should we find a place to stay next?"

"Yes, I checked for local hotels at the Internet café and there's one not far from here, lets go"

We walked onwards. I just noticed we've begun walk side by side, since when did that become the default? Now that I think about it, are we still dating right now? We've had other things to think about so _that _particular detail has been kind of put on hold…maybe its better we just focus on hiding.

"Maybe I should adopt a different hairstyle now that we're supposed to hiding," Haruhi said like she was thinking out loud, "any thoughts?"

I think it's obvious what I wanted to say, but considering I had just told her about my identity has John Smith her mind has to be analyzing past events and if I tell her to put it in a ponytail she might make a connection I'd rather she didn't make. Maybe pigtails…scratch that, that idea wouldn't be well received…she'd still look good even if she just wore her hair plainly like Sasaki-…can't really suggest that either…

"Kyon?" She asked and turned her neck around to face me.

"I'm thinking," I said.

I stared at her for a few moments, picturing some of her old hairstyles.

"If you're going to be weird about this, then never mind," Haruhi said blushing, and turned her neck to look forward again.

Suddenly, Haruhi stopped and stared to her side.

"What is it?" I asked.

She didn't answer, just kept staring. I looked to my side as well and saw that she was staring at the display window of an electronics shop. It had a few televisions on display and on them…an aerial shot of North High on fire, accompanied by various newsflashes, including 'several students rushed to hospital.'

Haruhi put down her bag and reached into her pocket for her cellphone.

"Haruhi…" I said cautiously but she didn't seem to notice. Her phone made a sound indicating that it was turned on.

"Haruhi," I repeated a bit more firmly, "You…you can't call. Your phone can be tracked, you shouldn't even be turning it on."

"Who cares!" Haruhi snapped at me, "I have to know if everyone's okay, don't you?"

"Of course I do," I pleaded, "but you can't call anyone, not while we're hiding. They could use the phone call to fix on your location."

Haruhi stopped dialing and fixed her eyes on me, her face slowly turning from distressed to furious.

"You're too calm," She said coldly, "You knew about this?"

"…Yes, I heard about this a few hours ago," I admitted.

"You…You idiot!" She yelled at me, grabbed my collar and pulled me down. "That's not how this works!" She shouted in my face, gathering the attention of quite a few bystanders, "You were supposed to tell me everything! You don't keep me in the dark when something like this happens!"

"I just confirmed it a short while ago-" I tried to defend.

"You don't wait to confirm!" Haruhi yelled at me, "If any of my friends could be hurt or…you tell me!"

She stared at me as if she was waiting to see whether or not I had something to say for myself, which I honestly didn't. It was a stupid mistake not to tell her about this, and I did just because it was easier to keep her moving if she doesn't know…I guess that way of thinking has to go.

"I'm sorry," I said sincerely and straightened by back, although Haruhi didn't let go of my collar, "I…I guess I didn't want you to worry for nothing so I wanted to wait until I knew something."

"That's not how the deal works," Haruhi muttered crossly and turned her eyes away from my face, staring into my chest instead

"You're supposed to tell me…just tell me if everyone is…" She tried to speak before she drifted away. She grabbed my collar even tighter and placed her forehead on my chest. I could hear one or two quick and suppressed sobs.

"I spoke with a person who's in a position to know earlier, so I know that Koizumi, Nagato and Asahina weren't harmed by the fire, and our class seems to have escaped the worst of it…Tusurya was admitted for smoke poisoning but they say she'll be fine."

I gave Haruhi a few moments to compose herself. It was a bit strange standing there with her right up against me, I couldn't tell if a hug was called for but in the end I just stood there. She made a few controlled, labored breaths through her noise and after a few of those she seemed to have gathered herself.

"Is there anything else you're not telling me?" She finally asked sternly, and looked up to face me.

The fact that you're capable of bending reality. The fact that I've been asked to transfer those powers into Sasaki. The fact that there are data entities observing you, and they've gone missing. The fact that I should be dead right now according to some…

"Yes," I admitted, "I already told you, there are some things I can't tell you."

"If you keep something like this away from me, who can I trust you?" she asked me and narrowed her eyes at me, I could've sworn her hold on my collar got even tighter.

"I…I wasn't keeping it away from you, I just hadn't told you yet…we needed to keep moving, all the fallout…we could handle later," I said, trying to sound sincere but not even I would've accepted that excuse.

"That's _not _how this works," Haruhi said and pulled me down again, although with less enthusiasm than before, "I've accepted that you _absolutely can't_ tell me some things because of somethingI don't really understand, but beyond that you don't just tell me whatever makes me _manageable, _you tell me everything. You got that?"

"…Yes. Absolutely." I said and swallowed.

"Good," Haruhi said and let me go, "Now…I understand that these cell phones might give away our position but my parents must be worried sick…"

"Your parents have been placed in a witness protection program," I said, trying to make it sound reasonable and normal.

Haruhi stared at me in disbelieve.

"I'm telling you _now,_" I said before she could vocalize her accusation, "They're safe and they know you weren't at school so they know you weren't hurt in the fire."

"Wait, how do they know that?"

"They were told that you were seen leave the school before the fire…with me."

Haruhi let me go and turned to stare at the televisions.

"The people who are after me…did they do this?" She asked, "They did this to get to me? This happened because I'm in that school?"

Crap. How the hell do I explain this without mentioning time travel? If what Fujiwara told me is true then nobody caused the fire, some people just tried to take advantage of it. But in my opinion that distinction is just splitting hairs. They should've prevented the fire, and not just for me, I don't believe history needs Tsuruya to get smoke poisoning or several High School students hospitalized.

"You…don't blame yourself, there was no way for you to know what was going on or what would happen," I said.

"Yes," Haruhi said hotly, "I didn't know what was going on, and you tell me that's because you and your people kept things away from me!"

"Look…" I said, trying to contain the anger that was slowly building up in me, I'm sick of having the fallout of Haruhis power on one side and Haruhi herself on the other, permanently stuck between a rock and a hard place, "I didn't know they would go this far, I even tried to talk to them to find a peaceful solution but they wouldn't have it. I'm also in way over my head here just like you so just…Stop blaming me, I only did what I had to too keep you…contained."

She didn't answer, just frowned at me and glanced a few time at the televisions. She then wordlessly grabbed her traveling case and walked on. I caught up to her and walked with her. Neither of us spoke while we were walking out of the shopping center. Once we were out I subtly took the lead, as I knew where the nearest hotel was, and lead us towards it.

"You know…it just kicked in for me…this is real, isn't it?" Haruhi said thoughtful, "You really are John Smith, There really was a fire at our school, you really are linked to some powerful organization, my parents really are in a witness protection program, there really are people after us…"

"Yeah…" I murmured, "I'm afraid so."

"Then…they really did come for me this morning…and you really did save me?" Haruhi said, her tone turning more serious.

"I'm not sure 'saved' is the word but yes…my allies couldn't protect you so I had to take matters into my own hands." I said.

We walked in silence for a few minutes after that.

"You know, I wasn't _really _going to tase you back then…" Haruhi muttered suddenly.

"I know," I said, "That thing wasn't even turned on."

Haruhi made an adorable embarrassed grunt.

We arrived at the Hotel shortly after that exchange. It wasn't a fancy hotel, the info I found online said it was about two and a half stars, but it was good enough. It wasn't large and it had more of a western feel to it than the other hotels I've been to while traveling with my family, probably more marketed to occidental tourists.

"How may I help you?" asked the clerk at the desk once he noticed us.

"We'd like two one-bed rooms, please," I said. I think it's better if we get some time apart for now, and I'm pretty sure Haruhi will agree.

"Oh, I'm afraid the only room available is the bridal suite," The clerk said.

"…_What_?"

"Just kidding," The clerk said with a bright smile, "I'll give you rooms 106 and 107"

Restraining the urge to smack him, I paid for the rooms and accepted the keys, handing Harhui the keys to room 107.

"Are you hungry?" I asked Haruhi while we were looking for our rooms.

"Yeah a little…but I could use a shower…" She said.

"Okay, how about we take a rest and meet up in…lets say two hours?"

"Sure," Haruhi said.

We found our separate rooms and parted ways. The room wasn't much, just a bed, a small desk, a television and a small bathroom with a shower. The first thing I did once I had put my bag down was to take a long and well deserved shower.

Once I got out of the shower, with the towel wrapped around me, and stepped out of the bathroom I found Nagato standing in the middle of the room staring at me. Her eyes where slightly shut like she was somehow worn out, her back was slightly bent and her uniform was wrinkled.

"You…how did you get in here?" I asked once I had regained my bearings

"The door wasn't locked," She said.

"…oh."

I'm not very good at this fugitive stuff, am I?

"What happened to you?" I asked.

"There was a confrontation with the Domain," She said. Her voice wasn't her usual monotone-ish voice, it somehow sounded _more _flat, like she was completely on autopilot. Her eyes didn't meet mine but rather stared directly ahead.

"Confrontation? You guys fought?" I asked.

"Indirectly," Nagato said, "The Domain set up a barrier around this planet. For approximately three hours the IDSE was unable to gather any data from it. Agents locked on the inside where dispatched to examine, evaluate and engage the barrier."

"What…Barrier? I don't understand."

"Humans have not discovered the concepts involved in the technology applied, 'barrier' is a word I choose to communicate the effects of the phenomenon."

Did Nagato just say she dumbed it down for me? Guess I shouldn't complain...

"So, what happened? Are you alright?" I asked, genuinely concerned. Even if she only looked a little tired, this was Nagato. She didn't get tired, and her uniform was always spotless.

"I will recover. The safety of you and Suzumiya-san is our concern now," Nagato said.

"Alright…so, you broke the…'barrier'?" I asked.

"No," she said, "Breaking the barrier quickly could not be accomplished without endangering the planet Earth due to the volatile nature of the energy it utilizes and because of its strength. Much like a ship in a bottle made of bulletproof glass, it is hard to break the glass without damaging the ship."

…

…Why?

…Just….Why?

Having a bossy reality warper in my life wasn't enough. Having an organization planning to abduct her wasn't enough. Having time travelers trying to murder me wasn't enough. You need do add to the equation aliens beyond our comprehension willing to endanger the entire planet?

How can this mess still be getting worse?

"So…the barrier's still there?" I asked, trying to understand what I knew I couldn't.

"Yes, we overtook it," She said.

"If it's something so powerful, won't people on Earth notice it?" I asked.

"You have the same chance of detecting it as a Homo erectus would have of detecting radiation or radio transmissions. You simply don't know what to look for."

"I see… So you overpowered them and took it over? Now you're fighting?"

"No. We overtook it without direct confrontation using a vulnerability in its defenses that allowed us to override their control and force them out. It is now controlled by the IDSE."

"You hijacked their plan in three hours? Are you that superior to them?" I asked hopeful.

"No. We now believe the vulnerability was intentional," She said.

"Intentional? Why would they do that?" I asked surprised.

"Overtaking and maintaining such a massive barrier tied up a significant portion of our resources, and the vulnerability was engineered in such a way that only the most dominant faction within the IDSE could make use of it. As a result the dominant faction has lost a part of its power and can no longer claim clear dominance as long as we have a significant portion of our power tied up in maintaining that barrier."

It's never simple with any of these people, is it?

"But...if they did that intentionally, how did they do it?" I asked, "I thought you two entities barely even understood each other."

"It's a possibility they have gained a greater understanding of us than we believed. It also a possibility one of the factions within the IDSE gave it the information it needed to engineer the barrier this way. Although communications with the Domain have been next to impossible so betrayal doesn't seem likely, it's still within the realm of possibility that one faction within the IDSE independently developed a way of communicating with the Domain."

I gave myself a moment to take that in.

"If the Domain did it on their own, why would they intentionally temporarily weaken a specific faction within the IDSE?" I asked.

"It shows an understanding of the IDSE command structure we didn't know the Domain possessed. With the dominant faction weakened its policies can no longer be enforced. We are…unsure how to proceed."

"…you're no longer just going to monitor Haruhi and not interfere anymore?" I asked cautiously. This conversation just keeps getting better.

"While we are reaching a stronger consensus, we will not do anything beyond keeping you and Suzumiya safe and attempt to hinder any attempts made by the Domain to secure you without engaging them directly if it can be avoided." She said.

"You're still not fighting them directly? After all this?" I asked surprised.

"The barrier incident ended without direct confrontation, and the decision to engage and fight the Domain head on must be made with a strong consensus so every faction will fully partake, the general opinion is that this can still be resolved without open hostilities. The barrier could have to be maintained for the duration of this crisis so we must reach a common understanding. Other issues being debated are the decision to provoke a response from Suzumiya, to support the transfer of power or to take a standing in the issue of timeline change."

"So…you know about that timeline…issue?" I said. I had been sort of hoping that Fujiwara had been lying to me but if Nagato confirms it…

"It would've been hard not to notice the massive disturbance in the local temporal flux," She said.

"So…where do you stand on that?" I asked, reluctantly as I had a suspicion that maybe, just maybe, I didn't want to hear the answer.

"The time travelers affiliated with Asahina no longer appear to have goals compatible with ours. The alliance has been dissolved."

I swallowed hard when I heard that. The status quo really had been thoroughly broken.

"But…what about Asahina?" I asked, the worries about her I had been trying to suppress for the entire day finally surfacing.

"Asahinas primary affiliation is the SOS Brigade, as such she's under my protection," Nagato said, "So is Koizumi although his Organization has been forced to splinter into smaller cells and have a severely reduced effectiveness. The alliance with them remains."

There is no word for the relief I felt when I heard about Asahina being under Nagatos protection. I had the impression that Koizumi was more capable of handling himself but I was still glad to hear he had added protection, despite his organization not doing so well.

"But anyway, you're not sure which timeline you want?" I said.

"We are no longer allied with either time traveler faction, and we're not sure which timeline would benefit us more. Most wish to go by non-interference but we do not agree on whether 'non-interference' would mean letting the time travelers fight amongst themselves or actively fight against outside faction wishing to interfere with Suzumiya, as we know she is the key in the divergence of timeline so standing aside may not be wise."

"You don't know what caused the timeline divergence?" I asked. Could it be that I know something critical that Nagato doesn't? That could be a first…

"It is hard to pinpoint the exact variable." She said.

"It…Fujiwara told me that in the original timeline I died…today. He told me that my death was what caused Haruhi to reshape the world, and it _not _happening was what caused the divergence."

Nagato was silent for long time after that statement. I eventually got uncomfortable with her standing there staring blankly into space and continued speaking.

"He said he wanted to prevent the original timeline because of the damage done by time travelers in it."

"I see."

She remained silent for a few moments more, she then finally spoke.

"It is a creative solution to the problem of timelines being protected by key events being predetermined, one that demonstrates far more understanding on the temporal flux then we were aware that humans could possess. Instead of forcing the flux to take a wildly different direction by attempting to make a new event happen and thereby forcing change to a new timeline, which has been proven to be impossible because the flux fights against it, he kept the flux on a course it was more likely to take by preventing a random and unlikely key event that radically changed the timeline, leaving the flux to repair and resolve itself and turning it against the old timeline. It would, however, have been impossible if Suzumyia hadn't been involved."

"I don't fully understand all that but…I get the practical side of it. I die, original timeline gets restored. I live, new timeline overwrites old one," I said.

"It's not that simple."

Of course it isn't…

"Not only must you live but some radical change should be made so that the timeline diverges fully. The problem is that paradoxically the local flux will now eradicate the old timeline but also work against any attempt at forcing a key event that would make the existing timeline an impossibility and completely overwrite it," Nagato said, "Eventually the old timeline will get destroyed as the divergence becomes greater on its own but it's difficult to tell how long it will take, none of our simulations are viable as our temporal flux theories don't apply anymore."

"I don't understand…how does the…'flux' fight against it?"

"Humanities understanding of the laws of probability is flawed. Most events dramatic enough to diverge a timeline have a 0% chance of happening so they will never occur no matter how you try to force them, this is most evident when someone from another era is involved. If Fujiwara would attempt to force change by introducing a new technology to this era, introducing a new disease or detonating a nuclear device on a major city, he would never succeed. He could only accomplish small changes and rely on them to cascade into greater events."

…and I though the time traveler talk I had heard so far was convoluted…this is something else…

"So…what, I just wait?" I asked once I had processed all that.

"Not necessarily, you have two options."

"What are they?" I asked, glad to be hearing the practical side of this.

"Transferring the power to Sasaki would make it impossible for Suzumiya to reshape the world. However, as it is an event that would force timeline divergence and is done by someone that shouldn't be in this era, as you should be dead now, it should have a 0% probability. But as many fundamental rules have already been broken and Suzumiya is directly involved in that event, it's possible it could have even a 100% probability"

"…I'll think about that, but doesn't that go against your goals?"

"We haven't decided. We are still debating."

"…right, what's the other way?"

"Suzumiya changed the world because she saw the world differently in a profound way, if she would see the world in a way different than she does now she might reshape the world in a way that makes the old timeline an impossibility."

"But…how? How would I profoundly change her worldview?"

"To combat a change caused by a negative feeling, it is logical to invoke a positive feeling. Her change happened when you were suddenly removed from her life, perhaps her life will be significantly different if you become a bigger part of it."

"…did you just tell me to save the world using the power of love?"

"That approach has proven successful in the past."

…did Nagato just make a joke?

This is getting to be too much to take in. I sat down on the bed, making damn sure my towel revealed nothing along the way, and rubbed my chin.

"So…" I said after some introspection, "will you be traveling with us now?"

"No. It is not an option. We have clear evidence that there are at least three agents of the Domain active within the barrier and we believe they are looking for you and Suzumiya, and intend to capture you or lead their allies to you," Nagato said.

"…You're saying that right on my tail I have three of those…" I was going to say _things _but then I remember what company I was in. She's nothing like the Domain agents, nothing like the other IDSE agents even, but I'm not going to risk offending her by referring to interfaces as 'things'. "…guys chasing me down?"

"They are not chasing, they are seeking. If I traveled with you, my sustained presence would give away your location; my presence is far easier to lock on than yours. Additionally, any data manipulation I would perform would act as a flare to them. It is best if confrontation can be avoided entirely and for problems to be solved without data manipulation. The barrier distorts all readings within it and makes it difficult to track down individual humans but usage of manipulation would narrow their search ring down significantly."

"But…if it's difficult to track down individual humans now, how did you find me?" I asked.

She suddenly turned her weary head and looked me directly in the eyes with her sleepy eyes.

"I never lost you," she said.

…why do I feel guilty now?

"…thanks…"

"For the duration of the debates, I have been assigned to protect you and call in other interfaces if necessary." Nagato said, "I have decided to use programmable nanites. They are more primitive than my usual technology but they cannot be detected from a distance and in past exchanges the Domain has shown an inability to understand programmable nanites, it's a technology that they don't seem to be compatible with."

She gestured at a bag she had by her feet.

"There is a meal in that bag, with it are two cans of soda. In those cans are nanites that will automatically reproduce and spread through your body. They will increase your healing factor, stabilize some of your chemical reactions to make you more adept at handling stress, increase your reflexes, and allow me to monitor your condition and location more easily. If you get hurt or your vital signs point to you being in danger, I will arrive."

"…Thanks. I'll give one of the cans to Haruhi I presume?"

"Yes, but note that there is a possibility that the Domain agents or a powerful EMP might destroy the nanites. There are extra pills in the bag that can be dissolved in a drink and will re-introduce nanites to your systems. I suggest taking daily iron supplements while they are building up. If only one of you has the nanites, they can be transfused via two ways."

"And what are those?" I asked.

"A kiss would allow enough of the nanites to cross to be able to reproduce," She said.

"A kiss? That's a little…I don't know about that, what's the other way?"

"If you don't like the first method, you will not like the second one."

"What do you mean-…oh"

….why the hell would they include that feature?

"Any exchange of-"

"-yeah I got it!" I interrupted.

"I must leave you now," Nagato said, " I can't risk the Domain agents tracking me down while I talk to you and I've said all I need to. We will speak again later."

She walked out the door. I guess teleporting would count as data manipulation and help the agents track us down…still it's a bit bizzare to hear her speak of such imaginable technology and then just casually leave like a normal schoolgirl would.

After that I spent the remainder of those two hours I had for myself going over the contents of the bag and watching some talk show on the TV. It wasn't interesting but I needed something to turn my mind off.

Once my two hours where up I grabbed the bag Nagato had left, found Haruhis room and knocked.

Haruhi opened the door. What immediately struck me was that she really had put some time into her appearance just now. Her hair was tied into a bun, a hairstyle I didn't remember seeing her use before but I swear looked extremely familiar. She also had put the makeup she had bought to good use and she was wearing a one-piece dress that really did justice to her…figure.

"Well," She said with a bright smile, "Where are you talking me?

"Uhm…" I stumbled and lifted the bag, gesturing at it with my other hand.

Haruhi glanced at the bag, she then gave me a scowl that clearly indicated I had given her the wrong answer to her question.

"I was thinking we'd just…stay in. We're supposed to be hidden," I tried to explain.

With an annoyed growl Haruhi turned around, sat down on the bed and turned on the TV. I took a seat next to her and handed her a bento and soda from the bag. There was some action movie on the TV but I wasn't really paying attention to it. I've had enough excitement for today.

"What's the plan anyway?" Haruhi asked after we had begun our meals, "You had all that money and all those passports…are we going to leave japan?"

"I don't know…I know that tomorrow we should probably keep moving and try to get to a more crowded City…" I said.

"These people…we can't fight them? We just gotta run?" Haruhi asked.

"I don't think we're ready to confront them yet…for now we need to stay hidden," I said.

Haruhi didn't immediately respond, just stared out the window for a while.

"Then how is going to end if we don't fight them?" She asked and turned to face me.

"…You're right, it probably won't end without us facing them but…for now, today and tomorrow, it's best if we hide," I said.

"I see," She said and turned her attention to the TV, "I guess don't have much of a choice so I'll play along with this for now but I expect some real answers from you, and I expect them _soon._"

"Sure…"

We spent the night watching that action movie. It wasn't very good but I was an adequate distraction, if only for the reason that it gave Haruhi and I something to talk about other than our recent escape. After the action movie was a movie about ghosts. At my insistence Haruhi grudgingly agreed to change the channel and we watched some old drama instead.

A few hours later I was still there sitting in Haruhis bed. The only light was the faint glow of the television screen and some street lighting that was shining in, and only sounds where the faint sound of cars passing, insects buzzing, some faint chatter coming from the TV and the soft breathing of Haruhi, resting her head on my shoulder while she slept, having drifted off into sleep during that drama movie.

I should be sleeping as well, seeing as there was probably a long day ahead tomorrow, but I just couldn't. I had far too much on my mind for me to relax enough to be able to fall asleep. Everybody I know was in danger today, and it won't end there. The simple truth is that I don't see an ending in sight. Hiding isn't a solution but still it feels like the only thing I can do.

"You better be worth all this," I muttered quietly and turned to Haruhi, "don't take that the wrong way, it's just that I hope you realize I'm doing a lot for you. You better appreciate it."

The slumbering goddess did not respond to my comments in any way.

"You're prettier when you're being quiet," I said and turned my attention back to the television, trying to use it to turn off my mind so I can drift off into sleep. It's going to be a long night…


	6. Delusions Of Grandeur

**April 19th. Saturday Noon. Room 107**

The next morning I woke up with the sun shining through the window and straight into my eyes. I turned away from the light and rubbed my eyes with a heavy sigh. I quickly noticed that I had fallen asleep with my back to the wall, which explained the ache I felt all over my back. Once my eyesight became clear I glanced around at my surroundings…Haruhi was sitting by the desk, hunched over it, and I could hear that she was scribbling something. She was wearing an outfit I hadn't seen before, just a purple sweater and a blue skirt, and her hair was neatly tied into a bun the same way it was yesterday. Her trademarked ribbon was nowhere to be seen, probably still in my traveling case.

"About time you woke up," Haruhi said without turning her attention away from the desk, "It's noon already, how long did you stay up?"

"I'm not sure…" I said and kept rubbing my eyes in an attempt to wash the grogginess away.

"Well, I woke up hours ago," Haruhi declared, stopped writing and rubbed her neck with one hand, "but my neck is still killing me…let's try not to sleep so awkwardly again."

"Agreed," I mumbled and rubbed my aching back.

"You didn't do that on purpose, did you?" Haruhi accused and turned around to face me, "you insisted that we'd watch that boring old drama so I'd fall asleep, and then you'd get to enjoy having me cuddled up against you all night!"

"…Yes," I said absently and stood up, rubbing my left shoulder which had just begun to ache a little, "You fell helplessly into my trap. It was fantastic."

Haruhi didn't respond, just hurriedly turned her head back to the desk and resumed writing.

"So…you're keeping the bun?" I asked.

"Yeah, thought I'd try a different look now that we're in hiding," Haruhi said and adjusted the pin holding the bun together, "What do you think?"

"It's…classy," I mumbled, hoping I had stumbled on the right word, judging from Haruhis grin I picked the right one.

"What are you working on there, anyway?" I asked and took a few steps forward to I could see what she was writing.

"Letters, I bought a few in the gift shop downstairs this morning," she said with a hint of excitement, "these people you say are after us couldn't possibly track letters, could they? I mean they'd never be able to tell where it came from if we just drop it off at a random mailbox?"

"Well…I don't know about that…" I said warily, "I think they could have some way of using that to narrow their search ring down..."

"We'll just ask the man at the welcome desk to mail this in two days, We'll be far from here in two days anyway, right?" Haruhi suggested, and by 'suggested' I mean 'explained what she was going to do'.

"…fine, guess it wouldn't help them too much if we're cautious, just be careful not to say anything to specific in those letters," I conceded.

"Of course! I know what I'm doing!" Haruhi declared and turned back to her writing.

I leaned over her shoulder and counted the postcards on the desk.

"Why six letters?" I asked.

"Mikuru, Yuki, Tsuryua, Koizumi and two for our families," Haruhi explained.

"…our families aren't at home, they won't get the letters," I said cautiously, "I already told you…they we're relocated."

"You just told me about my family, your folks got relocated to? But yeah…I remember," Haruhi muttered, "but someone has to notice when a letter from me arrives at home, someone must tell them. I'm sure they will!"

Come to think of it, aside from Tsuruya, I don't think anybody of the recipients of these letters will necessarily be able to receive them, they may not be staying at home…oh well, on the off chance that these letters do make it to their recipients…

"I'd actually like to add one," I said as if I was thinking out loud, trying to pass my request of as trivial.

"What?" Haruhi asked and gave me a wary look, "To who? Taniguchi?"

"No…to Sasaki," I said and casually glanced out the window, strategically avoiding eye contact.

Haruhi instantly made a fierce frown.

"_What? _Why her?" she demanded.

"Well you see…" I mumbled and sighed heavily, rubbing my forehead, "…might as well come clean about her now that I'm telling you…stuff."

Haruhi have me a scrutinizing stare, leaned back in her chair and crossed both her arms and legs.

"Please do," she said sternly.

"Sasaki was…aware of the fact that we could be in danger," I explained.

"What? Why would she know that?" Haruhi asked and raised an eyebrow.

"She sort of…stumbled into this, not unlike me, she's aware of some of the things that are going on and knew this could be escalating."

"She did? Is that…that's why you were meeting her?" Haruhi asked like she'd just discovered a missing piece in a complex puzzle that had been baffling her for a good while.

"Yes. She even specifically asked me to stay in touch so she'd know I was safe if things turned sour…she's probably worried now that we've disappeared."

Haruhi turned her gaze away from me and stared at the letters she'd been writing. What followed was a full half minute of awkward silence while Haruhi frowned at her letters.

"I see," she finally stated without losing her frown, "well, I already bought all these letters, you can buy one for her yourself. And you still have to write the letter to your family!"

"Right…I'm just going to take a shower and take a trip to the gift shop first…" I said and headed for the door.

"Kyon!" Haruhi called before I reached the door.

"What?" I asked her and turned around.

She pointed at a small plastic bag she had on her desk, "I forgot to give you these yesterday," she said.

I cautiously peaked into the bag, in it was a deodorant, shampoo and such…

"...thanks," I said, grabbed the bag and left the room.

I returned to my room, took a shower and changed into fresh clothes, and then found my way to the gift shop. There was a rack there with generic tourist postcards, I just grabbed one that had a view of the ocean on it and bought it. Then I returned to Haruhi. When I got to her room she was sitting on the bed watching the TV with a thoughtful look in her eyes.

"Could you put your name on the cards I've written?" She asked, "You know, just a signature. Except for the one to my parents, no need for them to know I spent the night at a hotel with a boy…"

"…sure," I said, and sat down by the desk. I read what Haruhi had written, it wasn't much more than reassurance that the two of us were fine and would return as soon as we could, except the one to Tsuruya included a get-well wish because of her smoke poisoning. I wasn't sure what to write to my Family…'Hello Mom and Dad, I narrowly escaped death yesterday and shared a bed with a godlike being last night. Will return home once the Aliens, Espers and time travelers are taken care of'….I just copied more or less what Haruhi wrote to her parents. Then I had to compose the letter to Sasaki…I simply wrote 'To Sasaki; We both escaped, we're both safe.' I then copied the address Haruhi had written on Koizumis card, I don't remember any addresses but Koizumi should be able to forward it for me. Why does Haruhi remember where we all live...

"There…done," I declared once I was done putting my signature on all the letters.

"Let me see," Haruhi said, stood up and approached me to examine the letters. She glanced over my signature on the postcards she had written, and then read what I had written to Sasaki.

"This is what you're sending her?" She asked with a strange look, don't know what she was expecting…

"Yes, I think that's enough."

"Alright," Haruhi said, put down Sasakis card, grabbed her pen and signed her signature on the letter, "There, we can mail these now…but why did you put Koizumis address on Sasakis card?"

"He'll be able to forward it for me," I explained.

"You don't remember her address? He'll know it?" Haruhi asked and stacked the cards.

"Any reason I should know her address? Koizumi can look it up for me. He knows who she is, and he's…resourceful." I said.

Hope that wasn't too suspicious…

Haruhi didn't answer, just put the cards in her pocket and then began packing her stuff. I followed her example and returned to my room to pack my stuff. Both the traveling case with my casual things, and my other bag with my…other things. There wasn't much to pack so I finished quickly and left the room. Out in the hallway I found Haruhi waiting for me. As soon as she noticed me she walked on ahead and I followed after.

"So…guess we'll be checking out now?" I asked as a chased after her down the stairs.

"Yeah, didn't you say we'd have to keep moving?" Haruhi said, determined as ever in her assumed leadership role.

"I did…I'm not sure exactly where this town we're in is located, but I'm not completely oblivious to my home region…I'm pretty sure there's a larger city north of here. I was thinking we'd go there, there should be a train route from here to there….and there should be an international airport, docks and such over there, we can think of the next move once we're there," I said.

"Think of it there? You still don't have a plan?" Haruhi asked, "I assumed you had a destination in mind already."

"No…the plan was not to have a plan, just to disappear and hide, keep moving, let's just go to that city" I said.

"I see," she said, "That approach won't do for long…but we can talk about it once we're on the road."

We got downstairs and approached the welcome desk. The clerk agreed to mail the letters in two days time after Haruhi convinced him to do it, and then he called us a cab. We didn't talk much while we were waiting for him to arrive, Haruhi wasn't paying any attention to anything around us and seemed to have plenty on her mind…once the cab arrived we asked him to take us to the nearest major train station, which he did, and before I knew It we were on a train headed north.

Haruhi and I were sat side by side in the crowded train. The seating arraignment was much like a bus, just pairs of seats lined up in rows. Every seat in the train was taken and judging by the noise everyone was talking, trying their best to have conversation over the sound of the engine rumbling and the noise of children crying. It wasn't too loud to talk, but loud enough to annoy.

"You couldn't buy better seats than this?" Haruhi muttered crossly and stared out the window right next to her, having claimed the window seat earlier.

"We have to save our money, I don't know how long we have to make it last," I explained, raising my voice just a bit more than I had to.

Haruhi didn't respond, just kept looking outside. The view was quick to turn from buildings and concrete to a tranquil countryside as we settled in for what was going to be a long ride. That city I was thinking of had been further away than I originally thought, but we went ahead with going there anyway.

"So," Haruhi said absently while keeping her eyes fixed on the passing scenery, "is this what we'll be doing? Going from a hotel from a hotel, spending half the day in trains?"

"I don't know…" I said and put down a magazine I had been reading but had long since lost interest in, "once we've gone far enough and been hidden long enough, our trail should've gone cold and we could stay in one place, I guess"

"What do you mean?" Haruhi asked, some frustration in her voice, "Once our trail has gone cold? We're just two kids traveling though Japan, what trail could we be leaving?"

"I don't know…but I'm not taking any chances," I said and glanced out the window, optimistically checking if our destination was in sight yet, "we're going as far as we can."

After Fujiwara tracked us down I'm not trusting my own ability to hide, and if Nagato could keep track of us those other agents must be able to find us eventually…for now, we must keep moving.

"I see…so we'll be leaving Japan?" Haruhi said thoughtfully and stared ahead while rubbing her chin the way generals do in the movies when they're planning their campaigns, "Wouldn't that be worse? I mean, we don't really blend into other countries as well as we blend in here."

"I'm not sure…" I said and leaned back into my seat, adjusting it slightly in a futile attempt to get comfortable, "there are a few Japanese-speaking communities abroad where we could probably blend in, or at least we wouldn't stick out too much there, Besides, there must be thousands of Japanese tourists all over the world…isn't your English good? We could get by in many places just by speaking English."

I'm not sure if I was convincing Haruhi or myself that going abroad was a good idea…

"My English is fine, I would be more worried about your English," Haruhi said and tried to adjust her seat herself, which didn't help much judging by the contempt in her eyes when she stared at the adjustment lever, "but there can't be that many Japanese teenagers traveling in the middle of the school year."

"Yeah, well…I don't think they can do a worldwide search for Japanese teenagers," I said.

"You sound convinced," Haruhi said and gave me an examining look, "So you do think we should leave Japan?"

"I don't know…" I said and turned my neck to face her, "I guess we could blend in with tourists in Europe or immigrant communities in North or South America, although maybe it would be smarter to travel shorter distances and just go to Korea, Russia or China…I had passports to South Africa and some other countries so we have more options."

Haruhi began rubbing her forehead, shamelessly mirroring my signature move, and then began to chuckle.

"What's so funny?" I asked.

"I finally let you take charge, ask you where you want to go and you can't even answer which continent?" she said amused.

I allowed myself a slightly exhausted laughter, the girl has a point…

"I'm new at this, and I have a plan for today so…I'll get better at this as I go," I said.

"I should hope so," Haruhi said and turned to continue staring out the window, "The plan is then just to find a hotel in the next city, then find another place and eventually find somewhere we can stay for a longer time?"

"That sounds about right," I said and leaned back into my seat, "we should find some place where we can wait this out."

"But…what is 'this'," Haruhi asked, "You've been really vague about everything…who are these people? What are they doing?"

I expected her to want more answers, even if I did tell her I couldn't say too much…I guess there's no harm in answering that, as I don't know too much myself.

"I don't really know," I said, "They've sort of been in the shadows this whole time, even if I've had the threat of them hanging over me for a while. And I'm not sure what they're doing…I assume they're looking for us and struggling with my…'associates.' I don't know what they're capable of so I'm just assuming the worst."

"…for some time you say…" Haruhi muttered and looked at me with suspicion in her eyes , "When we were seeing that movie…and you asked me if having secret organizations spying on us and plotting to kidnap me would improve the situation…"

"…yes," I admitted, "I was just…I don't remember what was going through my head…guess I wanted to know how you would feel about that…"

Haruhi gave me a scrutinizing look that lasted a full minute while I returned the look, not daring to look away. She said nothing, just kept…judging me. I don't even think I saw her blink…

"Violated," she finally said sternly, crossed her arms, leaned back into her seat and stared straight ahead.

"Yeah…so did I…" I said and mirrored her posture.

"And you said Sasaki knew…" Haruhi said the same way she would accuse me off an insult, "Is there anyone else that knew about this?"

She just asked a question I can't answer in full honestly. I can't reveal the SOS brigade was in on this…there are some things I'm not ready to explain to her, and the fact that all of her friends were keeping stuff away from her…that has to stay a secret for now, I can take the blame for all of us, the other have their hands full as it is.

"…Tachibana knew," I admitted

"_What_?" Haruhi asked sharply, straightened her back and shifty turned her head towards me in one sudden motion, fixing her eyes on me with a resentful glare, "She knew? Is that why you were meeting her that day?"

"Yes…you never wondered why we were meeting?" I asked.

"I wasn't interested in whatever flimsy pretext she used to lure you into her clutches," Haruhi accused and wagged a finger at me, "you were oblivious enough to fall for pretty much anything."

"…her _clutches_?"

"You heard right," Haruh said with a slight growl and leaned back into her seat without talking those resentful eyes of me for even a second, "So, There was Tachibana, anyone else?"

"No. Not that I'm aware of, at least."

That wasn't a half-truth or anything, that was simply a lie…a necessary one.

"I see," she said crossly and turned her eyes back to the view of the countryside outside the window.

We didn't speak again for a good while after that. I just tried to tune out, this train ride was going to take hours…

"This thing you say I have locked within me…" Haruhi finally said after a long period of silence, as if she was thinking out loud.

"Haruhi," I said a bit sternly, "This train is full of people…can we not discuss that here?"

"What?" She asked annoyed, "We already talked about some…stuff, the others here couldn't possibly hear us over all the noise."

"Still," I said, "Just…not here, not now."

"…Fine," She conceded.

There still was a long time left of the train ride after that. We spent it discussing the pros and cons of the various countries we could go to, and maybe places we'd like to visit once we were there. We also talked about nearby cities we might want to visit. This wasn't a holyday, but I guess there's no reason not to stop and smell the roses along the way…a lot of the time also went into reading the few utterly uninteresting magazines I had and just mindlessly staring at the view…I've never liked long train rides.

When we finally arrived at our destination, we quickly found our luggage and Haruhi plowed through the crowd while I chased after, allowing us to beat the rush and get a cab without waiting. Haruhi demanded that the driver would take us to a nice hotel. It was dark already and there was a heavy rain so I couldn't really tell where he was driving us, but he eventually stopped in front of what was, judging from the entrance, a very respectable hotel.

We hurried out of the cab and into the hotel, briefly enduring the downpour.

"I know I asked the cab driver for a nice hotel, but are you sure you wanna stay here? It's a bit fancy for our budget, isn't it?" Haruhi asked and glanced around the spacious and elaborately decorated lobby. The floor was white marble and the walls where black with golden patterns…maybe it didn't really match but I it still looked impressive. Impressive and expensive.

"I guess it is…but I'm exhausted from sitting in that train all day, I don't want to go look for another hotel... this will be alright, I'm sure not all their rooms are out of our budget," I said and kept walking towards the welcome desk, my every step echoing in the vast and mostly empty lobby.

"You know, there's no point in us talking separate rooms if you're just gonna sneak your way into my bed again," Haruhi muttered once we arrived at the welcome desk.

The clerk gave us a strange look. He was dressed as sharply as you would expect of a businessman on his way to an important meeting, and he made me feel underdressed even if I was just checking into a hotel.

"What do you have available?" I asked him.

"Our available single-bed rooms are perhaps a bit…" He gave us an examining look from top bottom, evaluating our every feature it seemed, "…extravagant for your tastes, we do have a few more modest two-person-rooms with separate beds and a sizable bathroom, if that suits your…needs."

He named the price, which was rather high but still acceptable…I pondered that for a brief moment, and then turned to Haruhi.

"That okay with you?" I asked her, careful to keep my tone completely neutral.

"What? Sharing the room or having separate beds?" Haruhi said as if she was being asked something completely trivial, "I can deal with both."

"Alright then," I said and turned back to the clerk, "We'll take the one with separate beds."

We got the keys to a ´Room 24´, and quickly found our way to it without stopping to admire the works of arts all over the walls. The room had two beds, each with its own solid oak nightstand with impressive and detailed carvings, and they did not look cheap. I don't even know the name of the fabric the sheets are made of…The beds were about two meters apart and front of them was a sizeable flat screen television. Next to the TV was the door to the bathroom, and at the far end of the room there was even a sliding door to a small balcony. The clerk may have described the room as 'modest' room but I still felt that maybe we should've picked a more modest hotel…

Haruhi didn't say much, just surveyed the room, put her bag down on the bed further from the door, grabbed some things out of it, went into the bathroom and soon I heard that she was talking a shower.

I placed my bags on the other bed and opened the bag the president had given me. Now that I'm in the comfort of a good hotel room, adequately rested and have had time to process this whole mess I can take a better look at what I have. First I counted the money. We had spent more than I liked these past few days but we still had most of it, plenty I would say. Then I took a closer look at the passports.

There we had Russian, Chinese and South Korean. Those were the obvious choices, relatively short distance and possibly easier to blend in as they should be the most used to Japanese people, although that just my best guess. There was the American and Brazilian, I think they do have some Japanese speaking communities but I don't really know much about them...Then there's the French, British and German. We could probably pass of as tourists in all of those countries, and I've heard something about the Germans having some Japanese communities. The South African one is a bit of wildcard, I think I could get by on English there but…it's filed under 'maybe'. I also had left to consider how safe we would be, not just from our pursuers but just from common criminals…

Now that I think about it, we shouldn't be leaving all our eggs in the same basket, Haruhi should be keeping some of this stuff. The passports came in pairs, I took the Chinese, French, Brazilian and South African passports and placed them on Harhuis bed. Then I took one of the roll of yens, about a fourth of our remaining yens, and placed them on her nightstand. I'm keeping the foreign currency, it' not like Haruhi can use it for now. Other stuff in the bag wasn't really things I could divide, except the jewels. The jewel bag had a few rings, necklaces and bracelets in it, and although I'm not an expert I'm pretty sure these are valuable. We were probably supposed to use them for bartering and such. I put one of the bracelets aside, a golden chain with a small plate that had an engraving of a traditional Chinese dragon, which I felt was fitting for Haruhi to carry. I also took picked one of the necklaces, a thin gold chain with a small medal. On the front was an engraving of a monk and on the backside there was an inscription that read 'St. Anthony of Padua. Patron Saint of lost things.' Isn't Haruhi supposed to be lost? It seems fitting that she should have this. Finally, I picked out one of the rings, a silver one with a red gemstone. She can carry those three pieces, just in case. I placed them on her nightstand and left the rest of them in my bag.

After I was done distributing the wealth I laid down on my bed and turned on the television. After mindlessly flipping thought the channels without finding anything of interest I stopped at a news station. There wasn't anything being reported that was relevant to us, I guess if there is any fighting going on it's being done away from the eyes of the public. And I suppose no one has noticed the barrier the domain erected, and there was nothing new about the fire at the school…I changed the channel and found some sitcom that could distract me for a short while

"What's all this," Haruhi asked once she came out of the bathroom and noticed the stuff I had left on her bed. She had put on that one piece she had on last night, a small plain black one, and she had put she same amount of effort into her makeup as she did yesterday. She also was carrying a small black purse I hadn't seen before, one that matched the classiness of her dress.

"I was thinking you could carry a part of our stuff," I explained while keeping my eyes on the sitcom and gestured at her nightstand, "You can take half the passports, some of the money and those pieces of jewelry. Don't get too attached to them, we might need to sell them before this is over."

Haruhi sat down next to her nightstand, crossed her legs and stared at the jewelry with a wary look

"Are these jewels supposed to be a part of a disguise?" Haruhi asked and cautiously picked up the necklace, lifting her hand over her head so the medallion would be on the same level as her eyes.

"I hadn't thought of that," I admitted, " I guess that could make sense…most of it had some sort of culturally meaningful imagery, the Chinese dragon on the bracelet and the catholic saint on the necklace…still, I didn't see anything on that ring."

Haruhi put down the necklace, picked up the ring and examined it closely.

"It says _'yours forever'_ on the inside", she said suspiciously and gave me an especially apprehensive look.

Koizumi, you bastard. Your people put an engagement ring in there? It didn't even occur to me that it was one, you always see them as golden with a white diamond, I've never seen a silver one with a red ruby…

"Well…you hang onto that one then," I said, using my fantastic sense of humor to dodge that bullet.

"…right," Haruhi mumbled and carefully placed the ring on the index finger of her right hand. Take care to note that; index finger, not ring finger.

"You don't have to wear them, just keep them…in case," I said.

"They're nice," she said, picked up the necklace, unhooked the chain and placed it around her neck, "I'll use them tonight."

"Tonight? Why are you dressed up anyway?" I asked.

"I wanna go to that restaurant downstairs," she said, picked up the bracelet and placed it on her left wrist.

"What? Don't you think that could be a bit expensive?" I asked and turned my attention away from the television to face Haruhi. I had only seen her from the corner of my eye till now, looking directly at her made me immediately change my mind about a dinner being too expensive, for some reason.

"Too expensive? We haven't had a proper meal in two days and now we have a restaurant right downstairs that we can go to without leaving the hotel. I don't care if it's a tad snobby, we're _going_", she demanded, placed her hands in her hips and leaned forward, clearly conveying that indeed, we're going.

"But I'm sure they have a dress code…" I said, "Easy for you to fit in with all that jewelry and that dress, I just have plain shirts and my school tie."

"Just get dressed," she said impatiently and tapped her foot, "I'm sure that if you stand next to me, it'll all even out and we'll get in."

I went along with her plan. I took a quick shower and put on one of the shirts I had bought and added my school tie to look more presentable. Before we left the room we placed our valuables, other than the small amount of money I carried and the jewels Haruhi had on, in a safe that came with the room.

The waiter who received us gave me a kind of a judging glare when we approached him, but once he saw Haruhi he apparently he decided that we did, in fact, even each other out, showed us to a table and handed us our menus.

The restaurant was almost fully booked, and yet with all that people there was hardly any noise, the only sounds where people talking softly and the music coming from a pianist playing a calming melody on a grand piano at the other end of the restaurant. The floor and walls were all black with the same elaborate patterns as we saw in the lobby, the tables were made of sturdy oak with artistic carvings and the seats where made of heavenly comfortable leather, there were even candles placed in shining silver candle stands on every table to top it all off. I glanced over the leather-bound menu and saw some prices high enough to make me feel a sting in my stomach, but judging from what the others were eating at least the food was good.

"Two days ago, would you've pictured us eating at a place like this?" I said slightly amused once I was done taking the place in.

"No," Haruhi said and opened her menu, "but I think that says more about you than it does about me,"

I began composing a response in my head, but decided to let that go as she was partially right...normally, you really wouldn't see me talking a girl to such a fancy restaurant. I'm beginning to understand why the time travelers are so cautious about affecting the future, events really do have effects that you wouldn't predict. The escalation of the conflict had the effect of Haruhi and I going to an expensive restaurant. It also had the effect of me accidently giving her an engagement ring…I'm still amazed how I managed to fall into that trap, you'd think that would be easy to avoid.

"So, we can finally talk now?" Haruhi asked after flipping through the menu for a while.

"Talk? What do you mean? What about?" I said.

"About, you now, whatever it is you say I have locked within me," Haruhi said with a soft but decisive voice and lowered her menu so she could glare at me over it.

"…I already told you…I can't tell you, and there are people here too," I explained.

"Nobody's listening," Haruhi whispered, leaned forward and spoke in hushed tones, "common, tell me, is I some sort of nano-robotics? Some magical power? Am I part of some ancient mystical bloodline? Am I some mutation? Tell me!"

How did she know about the nano-robots…

"Haruhi…" I said cautiously and lowered my own menu, "…I already explained…if I told you, I'd be making it worse."

"Even if you don't tell me what it is, can't you tell me what it does? How it works?"

"…No, that would be just as bad," I explained.

Haruhi gave me a scowl and then turned back to her menu.

"You're not making this easy," she said sternly without looking up, "I'm following you almost just on faith and you can't even tell me why people are after me?"

"There's nothing I can do about that…I didn't decide how this works," I defended, "you don't need to blame me. besides, I thought maybe you'd be a little bit excited about this…you made that whole speech once about how you hated the idea of being just one in a million, and now I tell you that you really are special…"

"I give you a speech about how much I hate being just one in a million, and you think I'll be happy about taking a trip were the point is _specifically _to completely disappear into the crowd?" She shot back, closed her menu and put it down, "I can't really decide how I feel about this if you don't tell me what _it _is."

"…then…We're at an impasse," I said and also put my menu down, meeting her glare.

Haruhi stared down and began fiddling with the pages of her menu. "So it seems," she said disappointed.

A moment later the waiter arrived.

"Have you made your choice?" He asked me.

"I'll have the Lasagna," Haruhi said and handed the waiter the menu.

"I'll have the steak," I said and handed him my mine.

"Wasn't the steak rather expensive?" Haruhi accused once the waiter was out of earshot.

"I've earned it," I said and rubbed my forehead.

"Sorry if this is too much of a chore for you," Haruhi accused, crossed her arms and leaned forward, severely limiting my personal space, "Are you just here because you have to? You stumbled into something you have no control over and now you're trapped, stuck with me?"

…where did that come from? Guess she's been letting some bad thoughts fester…

"No…it's not like that," I said tiredly, placed my right elbow on the table and resting my head in my hand, "although…maybe, I don't know, at first…"

"At first? What do you mean by that?" Haruhi said and raised an eyebrow.

I sighed…

"You remember when I was in that coma?" I asked after talking a moment to pick my words.

"Do I remember? I was there…all three days of it," She said, looked down and fiddled with her bracelet with a conflicted look.

"Around that time I was offered a…clean break of sorts," I said.

"…A clean break?"

"A way out, basically I could've just walked away from you, the SOS brigade, the whole thing. I refused," I said while doing my best to contain the frustration I was feeling with hearing all these accusations repeated like this was my fault.

Haruhi looked up again and stared at me with a cautious look, but if I didn't know any better I'd say there was hint of appreciation there, not that I'd be familiar with that look on her.

"So why didn't you walk away?" She asked and leaned back, keeping her hands crossed.

"Maybe I'm just a creature of habit," I said, shrugged and leaned back, "Or maybe I like the life I had, I honestly though my life would be far more boring if I walked away from you guys…so I didn't."

"…You chose this because you thought it would be _interesting_?" she asked skeptical.

"You're saying it isn't? At least things were far less interesting for me before you founded the brigade," I said.

"Yeah…it was that way for me to," Haruhi said absently, made a fist with her right hand, lifted it close to her face and began adjusting her ring with her other hand, "although I think things were even more interesting for you, sneaking around with girls and talking to secret organizations…"

"I think things are plenty interesting for the both of us right now," I said and glanced at the people around us. Nobody appeared to be listening, and a good thing to, who knows what people would think…

There was a short silence after that. Haruhi appeared to be looking at the people around her like I did, and I enjoyed the moment of peace by staring at the pianist practicing his art. A short while later our meals arrived. My steak looked juicy and delicious, and both of us had received generous servings, which seemed fair considering the price tag. As we began our meals, a though struck me.

"Tell me, Haruhi…would you call this a date? We haven't really talked about that since…you now," I asked awkwardly as I was cutting a juicy piece out of my steak.

"Well…" She said, and I could hear her familiar preaching tone returning, "Normally, if a guy showers a girl with jewels and takes her out to a restaurant like this, he wouldn't have to ask."

"…probably, yes," I conceded, "though I wouldn't say I showered you with jewels, I just let you keep some of them…"

"Kyon, don't try to downplay your gifts to me," Haruhi teased, extending her right hand to me and spread her fingers the way newlywed ladies do when they're showing off their new rings, "we both know this ring is just two fingers away from sealing my fate."

"…don't even joke about that," I said.

Haruhi giggled, awfully pleased with herself, and turned back to her meal.

"If it's not a date," She said , "it's something to it close to one."

"Why such a vague answer? It's a simple question…" I muttured.

"To be honest, It feels like it could just as well be me asking you, you're the one who has all the answers these days," Haruhi murmured and rested her head on her left hand, staring at her lasagna and poking it with her fork for whatever reason, "it's like you're some sort of onion…I just keep peeling away at the layers and finding out new things."

"You mean like a mystery wrapped into an enigma?"

"Nah, the onion metaphor suits you better."

"How so?"

"I think it's obvious."

"…did you have a point?"

"Yes, you're only telling me things as we go along," Haruhi said, stopped stabbing her meal and turned her eyes to me, "casually mentioning important stuff in conversations, I can't help feeling that you're still holding out on me."

"I just mention things when they're relevant…I'm not lying to you anymore," I said carefully.

"You see," Haruhi said, raised her head and put down her fork, "It's the '_anymore' _in that sentence that bothers me. The idea that this whole time, you've been actively lying to me, keeping things away…"

"It wasn't really the _whole_ time," I said and stopped in the middle of cutting my steak, turning my full attention to her slightly annoyed to be repeating this yet again, "it wasn't even until a while after you founded the SOS brigade that I found out about you.… and it was only a few times I really had to outright lie to you…you make it sound like some conspiracy were I everything we did was a lie…it wasn't like that, you know I'm not that good of an actor. There were more lies of omission than anything."

"Well, that still bothers me, and even in that case, you got to have all the fun," Haruhi went on and leaned forward, "made your own discoveries and had your own adventures while I was desperately looking for one."

"And now I'm bringing you with me on my latest magical adventure," I said flatly and turned back to my steak,

Haruhi didn't answer, just turned back to her lasagna.

"One thing I was wondering," I thought out loud a while later.

"What is it?" Haruhi asked.

"How long have I…you know…had your attention?"

"If you weren't completely oblivious you should've noticed something around the time we were founding the club," Haruhi muttered crossly without looking up.

...that long, huh…

"In that case, there's still one thing I don't really understand," I said.

"What?"

"If I had your…_attention _from the start, and you've established that you don't like me spending time with other girls, then why did you go out of your way to find the cutest, most well-endowed and most charming girl in the school and insist that she joined us? Mikuru and I would never have taken that walk in the park just the two of us if it weren't for you," I said.

"We needed a mascot," Haruhi said like I had just asked the obvious, "and what's this about a walk in the park? You were supposed to be looking for strange stuff."

"…yeah, that's what I said, we searched the park."

Haruhi gave an unconvinced glare.

Shortly after that we finished our meals and I paid for everything, earning a surprised look from the waiter when a kid like me paid that amount in cash. Then we returned to our room. Once we arrived I immediately laid down on the bed and turned on the television. Haruhi went straight to the bathroom, she was there for a while but once she came out she walked straight out to the balcony and just…stood there with her arms crossed facing the city.

After a few moments I gave in, stood up and walked out to the balcony myself and took my place next to her.

"You're going to catch a cold if you're out here dressed like that," I said while I was talking in the view. It was quite a large city, and it was completely dark aside from the city lights; the rows of cars, streetlights and lights of the surrounding skyscrapers. Our room wasn't that high up but the view was still an impressive display of the lights of the city shining through the rain.

Haruhi didn't respond, just kept staring at the city. I followed her example. A while later she spoke.

"Why do we always have to argue like that?" She asked with frustration in her voice while staring directly ahead, "We couldn't even sit down for dinner…"

"…I don't know," I said cautiously, her question caught me off guard, "…guess we've just been under a lot of stress…"

"Yes, but it's more than just that, you've been keeping stuff away from me this entire time!" Haruhi accused.

"You say you're tired of arguing, and then you shoot at me something we've already discussed?" I said, doing my best to make it sound more like an observation rather than accusation, "I already told you…I was only looking out for you and did what was for the best-"

"I know, I know," She interrupted me to concede and uncrossed her arms, resting them along her sides, "It's just hard to accept all that, on top of me being hunted by some people..."

There was a moment of silence after that…she's right about us arguing far too much. Is she offering some sort of concession now? If she is, I better take it. We really need to take some of the strain out of our relationship, there have been moments that I really did enjoy and if we can tune down the bickering, maybe we could have something good here…

"Look…" I said, "let's just get through this ordeal, day by day, and once all of this is over I'll have plenty of time to make all the sneaking around up to you."

She didn't immediately respond, just firmly stared ahead for a while. Suddenly, I felt that her hand found mine, slowly talking hold of it. I didn't look down, and neither did she, we just kept staring ahead and taking in the view.

"You better," she murmured.

We stood there for a while, silently staring into the rain.

"Haruhi…I've thought it over and..." I said in a low voice, "all the passports I was given, all the foreign currency, and the instructions they left me…my associates clearly think we should leave Japan and…I'm beginning to think we should, the sooner the better."

"Kyon…" Haruhi said quietly, "It's been a long day…just…not now, we can make plans tomorrow."

"…Yeah, sure," I said in agreement, "Tomorrow it is."

* * *

><p>AN: This chapter is shorter than any of those released so far. That's because this chapter and the next one were originally intented to be relased as one chapter but I split them to shorten the gap between updates. It does create something of a pacing problem as the story intentionally slows down in this half and picks up again in the other half, but I hope this chapter was still a good read. Feedback would be appreciated, as I'm trying to determine if my writing is getting better as I'm working on this story.<p> 


	7. Cupids Bullet

**April 20th. Sunday Noon. Harbor District. **

"You sure this is the place?" Haruhi asked and stared at the building in front of us in disbelieve. Our surroundings were a significant step down from the neighborhood of the hotel we had checked out of earlier today. This was an industrial district…every building looked like a warehouse or a factory, the sounds of engines and such echoed everywhere, and furthermore you had the sounds of the ocean waves along with the cries of seagulls. A cab had just dropped us of at a 'Traveling agency', it was once of the contract listed in my book. A smuggler that would get us to out of Japan with no paper trail. It was a man guaranteed by Koziumis organization…but right now I had my questions about their standards.

"This is it," I confirmed after glancing over my contract book…the building we stood in front of looked more like a restaurants employees entrance than a traveling agency…

We walked into the…'traveling agency', straight into a waiting room of sorts, there wasn't much more there than an unmanned welcome desk and a sofa. The room looked partially worn down, I think I saw the paint on the wall chipping away at places…

"This is who we'll be trusting to get us out of Japan?" Haruhi asked and glanced around, probably seeing some disturbing details that I wasn't noticing…

"Yeah…it's not _that_ bad," I said and approached the welcome desk. I rang the bell and in a short while in came a hefty man with a sizable and ungroomed beard, dressed in a wife beater that showed off his full sleeve tattoos.

"What do you want?" He asked harshly and looked as us with the same suspicion as if a couple of toddlers had just walked in.

"Kyon, I don't like this, let's just go," Haruhi whispered firmly, grabbed the sleeve of my jacket and took one step back.

"Just relax, Haruhi," I said calmly, "My associates recommended him…I'm sure it's fine."

I turned to face the man.

"I'm sure you remember me, I called you earlier today. We're a couple of Koreans who would like to return to our country without too much of attention or paperwork, " I said, trying to sound confident despite the fact that I know nothing about what I'm doing.

I handed him our Korean passports, he accepted and examined them.

"So…you're Hyo Seomun?", He said to me and then turned to Haruhi, "and you're Hana Won?"

"That's right," she said.

"And just now I heard you call him Kyon?"

"It's a nickname," she said without missing a beat.

"And he called you Haruhi?" he asked.

"I misspoke," I mumbled after a short and awkward silence.

The man gave us an examining look.

"Guess you did," he said uninterested, "And you want to return to your native Korea?"

"Yes...we're legal as you can see, but we'd rather go back without too much of a…you know, attention," I explained to him

"I understand," he said and further examined our passports, and then picked up what looked like a schedule ledger from a drawer in the desk, opened it and glanced over the pages, "Normally I wouldn't take in a couple of kids but since you have _that _phone number you're probably alright…not many are trusted with it…well…I have a boat leaving for the Jeollanam province in Korea, making a stop at the Jeju island, it has an modest cabin available, and it leaves tomorrow morning., Would that work for you?" He asked and named his price, which was lower than I was expecting.

"That would be fine, and we can afford that" I said, a bit concerned about what this man would classify as 'modest'…If he applies the same standard to his cabin as he does to his office, we're in for an unpleasant boatride...

"Let me explain how this works then…" The man said and rubbed his beard, "Officially no passengers are supposed to get off on Jeju, we're just dropping of cargo, but if you were to sneak away then maybe I would lose the papers showing you were ever on board in the first place, none of my business if passengers sneak away at some port random port…. And if you get caught there then you have these passports proving that you're citizens. As for the paperwork, then as far as my paperwork goes you were never even on the boat to begin with."

"I see…sound fair enough," I said…Even if it's convenient for us, it's still unnerving how casually he agrees to smuggle people. Maybe this is a bad idea…

"You know…" The man said and examined some paper he had on his desk, "You kids could be attracting more attention to yourself by going this way. These passports look legit, you should be able to just book a flight or take one of the ferries without a problem."

"Maybe," I admitted, "but it's important that there's no trace of…us going back to our homeland. Absolutely no paper trail. And I'm hesitant of talking the public routes."

"I see…I think you're just being paranoid but it's your money…" He said like he didn't really care and gestured us towards the door, "Be here at eight tomorrow morning. It won' be a comfortable ride but I make it a point to guarantee the safety of my passengers, I make my business on my reputation. I also want to make it crystal clear that, while It's none of my business if you disembark on Jeju or Jeollanam , once you're out you're on your own."

"Yes, that was more or less what I was expecting," I said, "one more thing, is there a hotel nearby?"

"Turn left once you're out the door, end of the block."

"Alright, thanks," I said, turned around and Haruhi and I walked out the door.

"Is this your idea of a safe escape?" Haruhi accused once we were out, "How do you know he won't sell us to slavery, or take us somewhere else than Korea?"

"My associates guaranteed him," I said despite no being completely convinced myself.

Haruhi gave me a skeptical look. We kept walking onwards to the hotel the man had suggested, dragging our traveling cases along.

"Do you even know where Jeju is?" she asked.

"Sure…it an island south of Korea," I said.

"Do you know anything else about it?"

"Uhm…I think it's a self-governing province…other than that, no," I said.

"Why do you keep talking us to places you know nothing about?"

"I'm pretty sure they have an airport there…maybe we just take a flight from there, the main point it to leave Japan."

Once we found the hotel we immediately saw that it was many leagues bellow the hotel we had stayed at last night, judging by the lobby and its exterior.

"Do you have two-person room with separate beds?" I asked the man at the desk, who was the polar opposite of the clerk that had greeted us yesterday. Unclean, unshaved and really just…unpleasant.

"Separated beds? Not many couples who check into here ask for that," he said and chuckled.

"…well, you got one?"

He handed me a pair of keys and named his price. I handed him the small amount he asked for. We found our way to our room as quickly as we could, this wasn't a place where you linger without a good reason. The beds were separate, but there was only about half a meter between them, and they were much smaller than the beds we slept in last night. And there was some smell…I didn't recognize it, but I didn't like it at all. The walls were covered with an ugly green wallpaper that had lost its color in some places and the brown carpet had some particularly suspicious spots. At least there was a television…

Haruhi put her bag on the bed further from the door, sat down, took a look around and made a heavy sigh.

"This place…you're trying to even out our budget after our last hotel?" she asked and stared at one of the aforementioned spots as if she was staring at a dead rodent.

"There aren't a lot of good hotels in this district…" I said and sat down on my bed.

"I'm surprised this is even allowed to be opened," Haruhi said in disgust.

Haruhi and I were pretty much on downtime for the rest of the day. We did almost nothing other than watch TV and look for info on Jejo from a brochure Haruhi had taken from the Traveling agency while I wasn't paying attention. The only time we left the room was to gate takeout from a nearby fast food joint. Before I knew it was evening already.

"One thing that's been bothering me…" Haruhi said gingerly while she was scraping the bottom of her take-away box, "other than that whole you-being-john-smith business…our families, aren't we leaving them behind?"

"They've been taken care of…I've been told the people after us are not after them anyway…"

"But," Haruhi said firmly, "Still, some people are in danger, there is a conflict going on, and we're just running?"

"It's what we were supposed to do," I said and shrugged, "we're not really fighters, we just need to stay out of harms way until this is over."

"That sucks," Haruhi declared, crossed her arms and leaned back into her bed, "just to run and avoid all the action."

"If you'd seen the action, you'd be glad not to be a part of if," I said.

Haruhi didn't answer, just gave me an unconvinced look and turned her attention back to the TV.

She's right, but in a way she can't know about…I do feel bad about leaving everyone behind like this…completely abandoning Asahina, letting Nagato work hard to shelter me and leaving Kozumi to fight his wars while I run…It just doesn't feel right, even if I know hiding it's probably the most sensible thing to do. For now. Doesn't stop the feeling of guilt from tearing at me.

We didn't talk much after that…we both needed a cool down period from each other I believe…we ended up going to sleep early as we foresaw a long day ahead of us tomorrow.

**April 21st. Tuesday evening. Jeju Island, A bar at an unspecified hotel.**

The evening of the following day I found myself sitting at a hotel bar in Jeju, reflecting upon past events. Haruhi was still in our room, so I had some peace to collect myself.

The cruise to Jeju had been brief but extremely uncomfortable, it also had been uneventful. It was actually sort of anticlimactic, someone had spotted us sneaking in but after we showed him our passports, we just got off with a warning for trespassing and were sent on our way. After that we had just went though the motions…checked into a hotel, had dinner, stayed inconspicuous…the old routine

What was highest in my mind right now was where my family and the SOS brigade were…we're really running away now, and if something happens to any of them… for some reason I was inclined to have a drink. Just anything to take my mind of this. Of course I shouldn't really be drinking, I'm not nineteen years old yet…but Hyo Seomun, my Korean alter ego, is. I had one drink, just to try it. Another one, to take the edge of. And then another, and….

It's bizarre how a simple piece of glass with a thick bottom can become absolutely fascinating once you reach the bottom of it often enough. If you drink if quickly, which I've mastered, you even get to see the subtle yet entrancing interplay between the ice and the glass as they reflect the especially tacky lighting this bar has. Funny how much these decorations need to be distorted to become even the slightest bit appealing.

It was at the height of my fascination with this phenomenon that it occurred to me that maybe I've had a bit too much. I reluctantly pulled my eyes from the glass and took a look around. I immediately regretted it. The bar was tropical themed, lazily decorated with tacky bamboo and out-of-place palm trees and…is that a figurine of a Hawaiian dancer at the other end of the bar? I leaned down, rested my chin on the revolting bamboo wood, and stared at the figurine…why is it smiling so brightly? She's just playing a Ukulele and wearing a hula skirt…such an easily impressed simpleton. There was even Ukulele music playing at the bar, which had long since lost its camp-value and was now just and endurance test…do you want that next drink enough to sit through this crap for a few more minutes? So far, I'm enduring.

"Are you alright, mister?" Said an intruding voice coming from above me.

"I am fine," I declared and lifted a hand without taking my eyes of the hula dancer for even a second, "now leave me, for I am in the middle of my thoughts."

"…sure you are," I voice said, and I heard footsteps moving away from me. Good riddance.

For a while I stared at my surroundings, cursing the interior decorator that had chosen to torment me so, but it didn't last long. I can only turn my mind of for so long before the trivial stop distracting me, and then what I'm left with is what I was trying to forget.

My friends. My family. I had left them behind. I had turned tail and ran when things got though. It was as simple as that. All their lives had been uprooted without warning and what's my response? Feeling to Korea. Is that really all I can do? It feels like I should be doing so much more but at the same time it's hard not to feel completely helpless with enemies like these…was I doing enough just by talking Haruhi out of harm's way? Or am I choosing her safety over the safety of the others? Bah…I don't even know if I'd really make a difference if I were to return…

"Barkeep!" I called out and raised my head, "My senses seem to be returning to me, please serve another drink before they do."

The bartender gave me another drink, but this one had far more ice than the previous drinks had…a subtle hint? You think you can use such cheap tricks on me? If it's a game of wits you want then I'm…you know…never mind.

Once I was halfway thought the drink I could hear a growl that I would've recognized anywhere, it's one of those things that's permanently burned into the back of my head. Haruhi had taken the seat next to mine without making the slightest sound and without me even noticing her.

"…How did you do that?" I muttered confused, "You were like…a cat…I didn't even see you!"

Her answer was a standard disapproving glare. Haruhis basic move no. 9. A great opening play. It's a bit predictable, but you just don't mess with the classics, right?

"How many have you had?" She asked sternly and crossed her arms, she's going straight for the offensive. Activate Attack-mode

"I don't know, I'm testing the theoretical upper limit, all I know is that I'm getting closer to it," I said and took another sip.

"Just look at you," She said hotly, "common, I'm cutting you of and talking you back to our room."

"I'd come with you, but I don't think you'd respect me in the morning," I said, practically radiating charisma like some sort of…charismatic….reactor…thingy…

"I won't," she said flatly without missing a beat.

"Oh…you're good!" I said, this sharp exchange is just the intellectual stimulation I needed to distract me from…things.

"You've had your fun, common," She said, grabbed my arm and dragged me out of the bar. Once we were at the stairs she let me go.

"Seriously," She said and walked ahead without me, "getting drunk while we're supposed to be saving our money and staying under the radar…what's wrong you?"

The instant she let me go I realized just how much her support was needed for me to make it all the way up to the third floor. I sat down on the lowest step of the stairs and buried my head in my hands so the world would stand still.

Her footsteps got more distant before finally they stopped. My sense of hearing told me she would be at the second floor now, but my senses are not to be trusted right now.

"Are you coming?" She yelled, her voice echoing though the stairway, the laws of physics conspiring against me to magnify her voice, which needed no boost to begin with.

"Haruhi…" I said, "use your indoor voice…"

"Get moving!" she yelled, with what was clearly her outdoor voice.

"No listen…" I said and laid down on the floor, "I don't think I'm gonna make it…but you can just leave me here, we've had a good run."

After an all too brief moment of tranquility on the hotel floor, her footsteps found me and stopped just a few steps short of my face.

"Get up," she demanded.

"Get down," I said.

"You're not being clever," she accused.

"You're not being nice."

"I'm trying not to be nice to you right now," she said crossly.

"Well then, mission accomplished," I muttered.

There was a brief silence after that…after a minute Haruhi bent down, grabbed my shoulders and lifted me up, placed one of my hand over her shoulders and dragged me up the stairs.

"You are surprisingly strong," I said after she had pulled me up to the second floor.

"and your weakness comes as no surprise," she said and grunted as she soldiered on up the stairs to the third floor.

"You have yet to see the full extent of my strength!" I declared.

"…Kyon, seriously, how much did you drink?" Haruhi said with partly concerned, partly unnerved out voice.

"Enough to make you absolutely ravishing to my eyes, my dear," I said in my best attempt at a Spanish accent.

She pulled me over the last step with unnecessary roughness.

"Idiot."

Activate Tsundere-mode.

Somehow she managed to open the door to our room without letting me go. She dragged me in and casually let me go on my bed like she was getting rid of her coat.

"Your services are appreciated," I said as the softness of the bed consumed me.

She didn't respond. I lay face-down on the bed and couldn't see anything around me, and I was afraid to look up in case the earth would begin to move in ways that it shouldn't.

After a while, as I was drifting off to sleep, I suddenly heard Haruhis voice, coming from her half of the room.

"Why did you do this? I must've cost a lot and this is no time for drunkenness!", Haruhi accused, "I thought I were just going down for a snack…"

"I've earned the right to smell the roses along the way." I said.

"What are you talking about," Haruhi asked, her mood getting fouler with every syllable.

"My family has been uprooted, I've been turned into a fugitive and my friends are…probably having a bad time," I said, finally letting some of my anger getting though. I wasn't directing it at her, just…at everything, "I just want to…get things of my mind."

"Being an idiot solves nothing!" she shot at me.

"That remains to be seen," I said, lifted my hands and defiantly pointed a finger upwards.

"If you being an idiot would solve our problems, we wouldn't have any," she said.

"…you win this round, Suzumiya-sama," I grudgingly conceded.

"But my family was uprooted as well! You don't see me drinking away my senses," she said and I could hear her stand up from the bed.

"Maybe you should," I said.

"I won't!" She snapped at me. I was taken aback by the genuine anger in her voice, as opposed to the annoyance I'm used to, "I'm not going to behave like some useless fool while my family is in danger! Even if all we're doing is running and hiding we can at least take it seriously!"

My jovial spirit was broken by that outburst…she's right. Of course she is. This is no way to act…all the thoughts I had been suppressing for the entire evening came back, an unstoppable flood of bad thoughts. After a while of trying to sort through it all in an attempt to find a response to her outburst, I heard her lie down in her bed with unnecessarily rough and dramatic movements.

"Haruhi…" I said gingerly though my drunkenness, speaking seriously for the first time for the entire evening.

"Good night, Kyon," She said, in a firm tone that clearly meant that the conversation was over.

**April 22nd. Wednesday Morning. Room 3-12**

The next day I woke up with the feeling that all the contents of my stomach wanted out. Before I was even properly conscious I rushed to the bathroom, stuck my head in the toilet bowl and evicted my stomach.

"Was it worth it?" I heard Haruhi say disgusted after I had sat there hunched over the toilet for a while. She was leaning on the doorway with her arms crossed. She was wearing her yellow pajama pants and a matching tank top. Her mess of a hair and the dull look in her eyes told me I had finally woken up before her. So that's how far I had to go to accomplish that…

"I regret nothing," I lied half-heartily and had a second eviction.

"Serves you right," she muttered, lazily stumbled into the bathroom, approached the mirror and began tying her hair in a bun.

I flushed and sat down in the corner of the bathroom, my stomach still wasn't happy and my head was still disoriented…I think I've had my fill of alcohol for a while now. The way I feel, it might be a while before I try food again.

"Haruhi…about last night…" I began.

"Kyon," She said firmly and stopped my incoming explanation, "you're not really going to go into that discussion first thing in the morning?" Haruhi said, tied the final knot in her bun and reached for her toothbrush.

"It's just that…"

"You were being an idiot," She said. Or at least that's what it sounded like. It was hard to tell, she was brushing her teeth while she spoke, "the problem is solved when you stop being an idiot. Alright?"

"Yeah, sure…" I conceded and fought of another wave of nausea by concentrating on sitting perfectly still.

It was at that moment that I noticed a golden chain around her neck...she just woke up and doesn't have her bracelet or her ring …did she sleep with that necklace? Huh…I shouldn't stare, although that tank top is a sight for sore eyes…

"So, were you planning to do anything other than sitting in the corner of the bathroom all day?" she asked me once she was done brushing her teeth.

"We'll see," I said, closed my eyes and leaned back. It wasn't comfortable by any standard but somehow, standing up and walking to my bed simply didn't seem worth it.

She did ask a rather important question though. If I weren't incapacitated, what would we be doing? The only plan we had so far was to sail to Korea. The big question was what we were going to do now. I'm pretty sure we could go to mainland Korea without much difficulty, then find an airport and fly far away from here without any problems, now that were out of Japan with no paper trail. I would use the airport here but somehow, it just feels too close. I'm not taking any chances.

It's sort of funny…four days ago I was fleeing from a conspiracy, and now I'm spending a day hung over on a bathroom floor. What an unpredictable life I lead.

I was in there for almost two hours. It's strange to feel a sense of security because of your proximity to a toilet…it's not a feeling I enjoy. I'm not sure what Haruhi was up to…she did bring me bottled water but she didn't say much, other than asking me how my penance was going. Everything has to be a punishment with that girl…

Once I had gathered myself I stumbled out of the bathroom, into my bed and buried myself in the sheet. After two hours on the cold marble of the bathroom floor, my bed felt like a cloud.

I spent the longest time lazily lying in bed. It wasn't until around five that, at Haruhis insistence, I finally got out of bed.

She didn't stop there. Oh no…she insisted that we'd go out for food and maybe a walk 'if she felt like it'. I don't know if she wanted to punish me by dragging me around town hung over or help me by providing me with fresh air…somehow, I think it's both.

Around seven the two of us were walking through a public park on our way back to the hotel after eating at a decent restaurant. Getting some food in me had actually helped my stomach quite a bit, it was now willing to cooperate with the rest of my body.

"Haruhi…last night…I just wanted to explain." I said as we were passing though the center of the park.

"If you must," she said crossly.

"I just that I hate how we had to leave everybody behind…it's been nagging at me for days now and it was getting worse and worse…I just wanted to forget about it."

For a full minute, Haruhi did not respond at all, just kept walking without even looking at me.

"What a stupid thing to do," she muttered, "drink your worries away? Did it work for even a second?"

"Not really…" I said.

"Then don't do it again, I don't even understand where you'd get such a stupid idea-"

Suddenly, a bright light filled my eyes and a heavy impact hit my chest as if I had been struck by an invisible sledgehammer, triggering an explosion in my chest. I staggered back and gasped for air but the instant I breathed in I felt like a knife in my chest had been twisted. I feel to the ground slowly as if the entire world was coming to a halt. The only things I felt was a strange tingling sensation all over my body and an unbearable pain in my chest, and then a blunt impact of my head hitting the ground.

As I lay there on the concrete I felt a wetness spreading across my back, the eerily familiar sensation of lying in a pool of my own blood. With much effort I raised my hand and ran it across my torso, immediately finding a wet spot on the left side of my chest. As I tried to get a feel for the wound I felt an even greater pain just by touching it, instinctively gasping in agony, the sharp and sudden breath followed by a pain that felt like my lung was being torn apart. The only sense I hadn't been robbed of was my hearing. I could hear what sounded like electrical surges in the distance, but other than that the street was deadly quiet.

Time really does slow down, every part of your brain goes into overdrive, even if I can barely think straight because if the pain…it this what people mean when they say their entire life flashes before their eyes? Is it some sort of mechanism to give people a little extra time to evaluate their lives before they move on? If it is my thoughts are nowhere near as profound as I would've hoped, the only things going through my head are 'If this is it, what will be the last thing I'll see?', and an indescribable dread that followed that thought. I didn't hear a scream or as much as a shout from Haruhi… My cheek touched the cold pavement as I turned my neck to the left, hoping that my sight would return so I could see whether or not Haruhi was lying alongside me. With agonizing effort I managed to stretch my left hand out, quickly finding a thin and frail arm that I instinctively recognized as Haruhis. She wasn't moving…I tried to say something but my breath gave away.

My sight returned after what seemed like an eternity. Haruhi was lying next to me, eyes closed, mouth slightly open and every muscle on her face completely relaxed, like a child sleeping in its crib. Her chest was moving so she was breathing, her clothes were spotless, all of the blood spread over the street was from me...my vision was turning black again, not from the brightness but because of the numbness that was spreading across my body, and this time I had a feeling my sight wouldn't return.

Strange. With all the thoughts that you'd think be filling my head, there isn't much going through my mind other than 'So this is the last thing I'll see', Haruhi unharmed and at peace, as if she was completely harmless and there wasn't a thing wrong with the world around her. Even if it isn't what I would've hoped to see in my final moment, it means that one of the last things I feel is relief, however irrational, so it can't be that bad. Still, I can't accept this conclusion…it can't end like this. Relief is not the only thing I feel…there's also pain…fear…regret…

As the world was turning completely black I felt the touch of a small hand spreading its fingers over my chest. I turned my neck to look up and despite my blurred vision I could make out the unmistakable silhouette of my guardian angel hunched over me. I was going to say something clever like 'we've got to stop meeting like this' but my lungs wouldn't let me.

From her hand I felt something like an electric pulse spreading though my body. Breathing stopped being agonizing and the world stopped getting darker, although it didn't get any brighter. The pool of blood I was lying in stopped growing. After a few seconds of her healing tried to speak.

"…what…" Was all I managed to utter.

"Time travelers tracked you," Nagato said, "I detected the projectile the instant it pierced the pigment layer of your skin via the nanites. It was too late to teleport you, so I relocated some of your organs before the bullet entered your rib cage and I reduced its spin and velocity as much as I could in the split second it passed through you. I also made Suzumiya unconscious, her seeing this could have undesirable effects. Additionally I locked this scene from bystanders."

"…But…where…"

"The time travelers were camped in a building not far from here, I located them based on the trajectory of the bullet and incapacitated them," Nagato said.

"…that noise…was…that…"

"The strength of my offensive data manipulations may have been…excessive," Nagato said.

My vision was getting clearer now. I could finally see her face…her eyes were just as dull as the last time we met, and they were completely fixed on the hand she held over my wound.

Suddenly the electric sensation coming from her palm stopped. The pain was still intense and breathing was still hard…she wasn't done. Nagato stared blankly at her hand for a second before she slowly stood up, took a few steps forward and glanced over her surroundings.

"The Domain," She said, "My data manipulation requests are being blocked. The strength of the offensive manipulation and the medical manipulation was too intense…They've located us."

"…blocked…how…"

"There are three of them interfering and overriding my requests," She said and turned around to face me, "I am outmatched."

"Assumption-Correct," said an all too familiar voice coming from behind me. I turned my neck and saw Kuyo Suo, now suddenly standing in the middle of the street that had been empty moments before. She was dressed in her black dress as always, and had a cold and calculating glare fixed on Nagato.

"Defeat-Inevitable-Fight-Pointless"

"Your projections are faulty," Nagato said, turned around and mirrored her opponents glare, "You have only blocked my requests, The Domain is not in full control of this space."

"Stalling-Futile-Retreat only…..viable option-Leave them…..To us."

There was a short silence while the two interfaces stared each other down.

"No," Nagato said.

Out of nowhere, a second bright flash filled my eyes and in the same instance someone grabbed my shirt roughly. I then felt a sensation unlike anything I ever felt before. It was as if I was completely still in zero gravity while the world moved at light speed around me. The world around me was a blurry mess of colors and the sounds I heard were indistinct and chaotic. The only thing I could think of to describe the sounds would be excessively autotuned whales trying to rap. That is of course just an estimation.

The pain I was feeling intensified during the few seconds this went on. When it finally stopped I was more disoriented than I've ever been in my life. I could tell we we're in an alley…somewhere…hidden behind a small concrete stairwell. I was sitting with my back to a wall and my rescuer was still holding my shirt tightly, and Haruhi was sitting next to me still unconscious and blissfully unaware her surroundings. After the world stopped spinning I finally realized who had swooped in to save me.

"…Kimidori," I managed to mutter.

Emiri Kimidori gave me a deceptively kind smile, ran her fingers softly across my jaw and slowly lifted it, carefully pinning my head against the wall and preventing me from muttering anything more.

"Don't speak," she said like a concerned nurse would advise a patient, "You should not have been teleported with your injuries. Your left lung is severely damaged, your blood loss is considerable, two ribs have been broken and a few of your vertebra have been damaged. And that's just the biggest if the remaining problems Yuki didn't get to fix. If not for Yukis intervention before the bullet struck, You'd be dead, and if not for her medical manipulations after the bullet passed through you, you'd also be dead."

I tried to speak despite her advice, but couldn't overpower her and move my jaw. I must be weaker than I thought…then again, maybe I'm underestimating her strength…

"I said don't speak," she said and giggled, "But I can guess what's on your mind. That Yuki girl, right?"

My instinct was to nod, and I made a futile attempt to do so.

"Her retaliation for your attempted assassinations and her efforts to heal you were disproportional and easy to lock on. She got herself into this," Kimidori explained.

I mumbled a stern objection though my teeth.

"Relax," Kimidori said with a compassionate smile, "Her safety is not a concern now, and even it if were the domain is unlikely to attack one of our interfaces with nothing to gain. With you two gone they have nothing to fight over."

I didn't answer… Kuyos strategy seemed to rely on Nagato backing down without a fight so I guess Kimidoris theory holds…but how close were we to breaking the fragile peace between the entities?

"Our concern now is the Domains continuing pursuit of you and Suzumiya," Kimidori said and glanced at Haruhi, "I'm not sure why I was ordered to assist Yuki, she doesn't seem to have this under control…teleporting you only bought us time. I tried to hide my trail but the Domain will probably be able to estimate my target position within a radius of 15km or so. Re-teleporting with you so fragile is not an option, even moving you with conventional means would be dangerous, you need medical attention."

Kimidori let go of my jaw and reached into a purse she had around her shoulder. She took out of it a small tablet.

"I can't use data manipulation to heal your remaining injuries because with a search radius of only 15km even the slightest manipulation will allow the Domain to pinpoint your exact location, these specialized nanites will heal you much faster than you would normally but…" She drifted of and stared at the tablet with slightly embarrassed smile, "They're not as subtle as data manipulations, They will agitate nerve endings."

"…You're saying…It'll hurt?"

"You should not be awake for the process, they're designed to induce a coma. Also, they do not fight infection or replace blood loss so you need to get to the nearest hospital. I have a contact here, via the Organization, that should be able to heal and hide you," She said and placed her hand close to my mouth, holding the tablet between her thumb and index finger.

"…where…are we?"

"We're on Kyushu. It was the only place where I knew I could find a doctor that would hide you within the distance it was safe to teleport you," Kimidori explained patently.

"…we're back…in Japan?"

"For now, once you recover you should leave," She said and leaned forward, now holding the tablet even closer to my face.

"…but…how could…the time travelers…"

"Find you?" Kimidori finished for me, "As far as we know, you haven't made any slip-ups that would allow them to track you down yet, a logical conclusion would be that you made some mistake after you left Jeju that allowed the Time Travelers to backtrack your trail, determine that you stopped in Jeju at some point, found out about a specific place you visited during your stay and set up an ambush. It seems likely that you got caught because of a mistake you never will make. These days are really interesting for time travel, the paradoxes keep piling up."

Kimidori giggled softly, officially crossing the line from morbidly endearing to just…morbid.

"Just take the pill," She insisted kindly, "I will handle this from here, I'll place you in good hands."

At that point the world began turning dark yet again. I bit down on the pill and swallowed. I felt a tingling feeling pass down my throat and that was the last thing I felt before the world turned completely black.

**April 25th. Location Unknown.**

When I woke up the world was a hazy blur. Before I could take in any of my surroundings I fell asleep again. For the longest time I kept waking up and fading out again without even realizing where I was or what had happened. All I knew was that moving and breathing still hurt. After falling asleep several times I finally woke up conscious enough to take a look around. I was in a hospital bed with an IV hooked into my arm and a heart monitor connected to my chest, and on my left were monitors and instruments showing my vital signs. After I noticed those things I thought I was in a hospital but…once my vision became clearer I saw that opposite me was an entire wall covered with bookshelves. I glanced over the room…looks like I was in somebodys study.

At the other side of the room were two leisurely-looking wooden reading chairs with velvet covers, and in one of them sat Haruhi hunched over a table, sound asleep. Her hair was a feral mess, her clothes were wrinkled…but despite all that she had the same peaceful look on her face as she did the last time I saw her.

Shortly after I woke up a man came into the room. He had an expertly groomed beard and hair to match, squire thick glasses, and despite him being dressed casually I immediately got the impression that this was a doctor. It was just the way he carried himself…can't explain it.

"I see you've finally woken up," He said enthusiastically and approached the bed to examine the monitors next to me, "Good thing to. I was getting worried that your coma would drag on, and not just for your sake, your fiancée wasn't handling your condition well…like one would expect."

"…My fiancée?" I muttered.

The man raised an eyebrow, walked over to Haruhi and grabbed her hand, lifting it up so I could see it.

"The nurses at the hospital are strict about visiting hours, only family members of patents in critical condition are tolerated outside of the waiting room after official visiting hours…she insisted on being in your room at all times so the nurses asked her what relation she was, and she told them you gave her this ring," He said and waggled her hand a bit for emphasis, "You aren't suffering from memory loss, are you? Do you recognize this girl? Do you remember giving her this ring?"

I stared at her hand…she had moved her silver ring to her ring finger…My head to far to murky to process this…

"She's not easily forgotten," I muttered and rubbed my forehead, feeling a stinging pain in my chest as moved my hand.

"That was the impression I had of her," he said with a bright smile, "And you remember giving her the ring?"

"…yes."

"Excellent," he said and carefully put her hand down without her reacting at all… "I must say, she reminds me of my first wife, so full of energy and determination…I feel I should warn you, picking a young woman like this is much like adopting a tiger cub; she may be cute now, but she'll grow up."

"Thanks for the warning…" I said warily and stared at the completely unresponsive Haruhi, "…is she okay?"

"She's fine," He said and glanced at her, "I just gave her a sedative...she had barely slept for forty-eight hours."

I felt a small pang in my chest when I heard that…I just now noticed the bags under her eyes…

"forty-eight hours you say…what day is it?"

"It's noon, April twenty-fifth."

"I see…anyway…I take it we aren't in the hospital anymore?"

"No," the man said, "at the request, and the expense, of the woman who brought you in I discretely faked a transfer request to another hospital once you were stable enough, yesterday, and had you moved to here to my home were I've set up the equipment needed to monitor recovering patients. You're the latest in a long string of people who end up in my hands when they prefer to stay under the radar. You're also one the few that particular girl has brought in, most of whom sleep of injuries most people would not survive. I was hesitant to take in a gunshot victim but the woman who brought you in was insistent."

Chills went down my spine when I heard that…who is this man? Hiding critically injured people for a price…and what's this about people sleeping of injures they shouldn't survive? What kind of practice is he running…

"How bad was it?" I asked.

"In a way, it's both awful and miraculous," the man said and ran his fingers across his beard, "I was told you had been recently shot but most of your insides were far too intact for that to be possible, even if you did have severe damage on your left lung and some of the surrounding bones and tissue, I looks more like you got impaled with a spike…but based on the entry wound on the left side of your chest you would not have survived if you didn't have dextrocardia, your heart would've been pierced."

"Dextowhat?"

"Don't tell me it's never been diagnosed before," He said with a concerned look, "your heart is situated to the right, instead of being on the left were it usually is," He pointed at my chest at the apparent location of my heart, "We couldn't help but notice while you were being prepared for surgery…It's the inherent risk of operating on patients without having a history, every now and then you run into a nasty surprise. But I studied your heart after the surgery and your condition is actually quite interesting as you have no obvious signs of the defects associated with dexocardia, your heart appears to be completely fine…just in the wrong place, which as it turns our was the right place. No pun intended."

"…I understand."

I'm pretty sure my heart used to be on my left side…you don't really memorize these things but surely someone would've noticed…is this what Nagato meant when she said she had moved some of my organs before the bullet passed through me?

"In any case, much like the other people I've taken in before, you're recovering far quicker than one would expect and with no signs of complications…but you should still take it easy for a while now," the doctor said.

Must be the nanties…as for taking it slow, I'm not sure that's even possible, didn't Kimidori say that the domain had located us within a radius of 15km? Are we still within that radius? And we've been here for days…shouldn't we keep moving? Get out of Japan again?

"I should leave you now, you both need rest, but there is one more thing," the doctor said, walked over to the bookshelves and picked up a box that was there.

"This came in the mail, it was addressed to you," he said and handed it to me, "I don't know much about the people I've associated myself with, other than they pay well for results and staying out of their affairs ensures repeat business. You can open that once I'm out, but stay in bed and try to go to sleep again. My daughter will check up on you later, and your lady friend should wake up soon."

Having said that he left the room and closed the door behind him. What he had handed me was a small cardboard box. I opened it as soon as he was out of sight. In the box were glasses resting on a piece of paper…I picked up the glasses, instantly recognizing them. These belong to Nagato. Something was written on the note…

_Our efforts to hide your location have failed. The Domain has erected a detection bubble around you with a radius of 15 kilometers, programmed to react to your DNA and give the Domain your exact location the instant you pass through it. An unnoticed escape is impossible. I will speak to you once your condition improves and explain the situation further._

I don't fully understand that, but it doesn't sound good…Detection bubble? They're just making these words up as they go along, dumbing their concepts down for me to understand…Why did she give me her glasses? Come to think of if, even if these are clearly her glasses they're just a bit larger than I remember them being…large enough to fit me perfectly. I put them on and looked around.

The room looked the same, but the instant I glanced out the window I saw it. A huge blue transparent half-sphere loomed over the city. I wasn't sure how far it reached, but it included more skyscrapers than I could count… I couldn't see how far up it went but I swear I saw a jet within the sphere, it didn't have the blue hue that things outside of the bubble had…I took of the classes and put them on the window shelve along with the box, the instant I took off the glasses the sphere became invisible.

Well...that turned very bad very fast…My chest still hurt like hell, guess I could as well rest…luckily I was still weary enough that I fell asleep as soon as I lay down and gave in to the sleepiness, despite the overload of questions and worries that were on my mind.

When I woke up again it was dark outside. The room was still brightly lit…I looked to my side. Haruhi, having apparently moved one of the reading chairs, was sitting by the bed with her eyes on a book she was holding...I could see its spine, it had the title "Introduction to Cardiology." I glanced up into her eyes…they were slightly shut and she had small bags forming below them…a worn-out Haruhi is not a pleasant sight. After a few moments of staring into her weary eyes, they finally met mine and instantly widened.

"…Kyon?" she yelled startled and dropped the book on the floor.

"Hey there," I said weakly.

"You…" She murmured, stood up and stared blankly at me for a few seconds before exploding into anger, rose from her seat, grabbed the arms of my bed and leaned over me, "…what the hell happened!" She yelled, "I thought we were safe! And then suddenly I saw a bright flash and then woke up in a hospital waiting room with a note taped to my hand saying you were in critical condition!"

"Well…uhm…"

"The doctor said you'd been shot, he said you almost died! How did this happen!" she yelled into my face with a fierce scowl.

I didn't answer, just stared back. I wasn't really making any point with my silence, I was just far too groggy to deal with this barrage of shouts. She stared into my eyes for a few moments and gradually the anger in her face melted away as her expression softened, eventually turning into a sorrowful look. Her grip on the arms of the bed loosened.

"They said you would've died if your heart wasn't on your right side but…" She finally said, while fighting a sudden lump in her throat, "…Your heart has always been on your left side."

"…why are you so sure?" I said.

"Don't change the subject!" She snapped at me, her cheeks turned scarlet, "I suddenly wake up back in Japan, and not only are you seriously wounded but your heart has moved. What happened? And don't tell me you can't say!"

"I really can't." I said weakly.

I think I've never seen Haruhi so frustrated…

"The woman at the desk in the hospital said some girl brought me in while I was unconscious, who was she?" Haruhi said sternly.

"She was…a friend. She swooped in and brought us here," I explained.

"And she arranged for you to get transferred to this Doctors home?" Haruhi asked and gestured at her surroundings.

"I guess she did," I said.

"You don't know?" Haruhi said with a troubled look.

"No, I was…out," I said, made an attempt to shift myself, only to feel a sharp pain in my chest and feeling even less comfortable for my effort.

"Don't," Haruhi ordered and extended her hand, leaving it hanging just over my chest, "The doctor said you shouldn't move because of your stitches."

I looked at her hand. She had her fingers spread and on her ring finger was a ruby on a silver ring…I stared at it for a few seconds, and then looked back at Haruhi. By the deer-in-headlights look in her eyes I could tell she had caught me staring at the ring. She pulled her hand back like she had been burnt and sat down in her seat.

"So…" I said cautiously, "I missed our engagement?"

"The nurses at the hospital were giving me crap about visiting hours," Haruhi lectured hurriedly, "and when they asked me how we were related, I just discreetly moved the ring and told them you gave it to me. I never said we were engaged, but they left me alone after that. Call it a lie of omission."

That's completely unreasonable…

We were both silent for a minute after that explanation. I was just trying to piece the events of the past few days together in my head, Haruhi was staring down, and I heard soft metallic clinging sounds, the sound of her toying with her bracelet.

"Why would these people try to kill you?" She finally asked without looking up, with the tone of a young child that simply doesn't understand why bad things happen.

I didn't have an answer ready for that…she's not blaming herself for me getting attacked? No…I don't think she would…I also don't think I can explain to her the real motive…

"These aren't nice people," I muttered.

Haruhi looked up with a strange expression.

"That's the reason?" She asked confounded, "Just that they 'aren't nice'? That doesn't explain anything! Why did they do this!"

Again, I can't answer that…

"I never thought it would go this far," I said

She just stared at me with a miserable and weary expression.

"…I'm getting the feeling you're in way over your head," she murmured and rubbed her temple.

"That's fair to say," I admitted.

"And what's with you and going into comas anyway," Haruhi accused, crossed her arms and frowned at me, "I _hate _this, hanging around just waiting for something to happen like some useless side character."

"That's ridiculous," I said calmly and managed to raise my arm and place it on her shoulder, "As if you'd ever be a side character."

Haruhi just went through a few days of waiting around not knowing if I'd wake up. But from my perspective, among the most recent memories in my head are thinking that she could be seriously hurt, and then thinking I'd never see her or anybody ever again. Put a simple moment like this in that context and suddenly it gets easier to appreciate what you have. Even if what you have is the girl shouting at the coma patient.

She didn't appear to notice my gesture at first, and for a moment if felt really weird…I'd go as far as to call it awkward. After a moment Haruhi grabbed my wrist, carefully pushed my hand back so my elbow would rest on my bed and then leaned forward, rested her chin in her left hand and began running her right hand through my hair quickly as if she was trying to straighten it out.

"You really are a mess right now," she said absently.

"You also look like you missed your beauty sleep," I said, copying her tone.

Her hand stopped mid-swipe.

"I don't want another nasty surprise like this, the agreement was what you'd tell me everything and that includes lurking danger, you got that?" She said and looked me in the eyes with a stern, but at the same time exhausted, expression.

It easy enough to just nod in agreement but…there is another lurking danger I'm not telling her about. The Domain seems to have us right where it wants us. Just running isn't going to be enough, we need to do something more to get out of this…keeping her in the dark about this isn't a good idea.

"Haruhi…" I said and gestured at the glasses, "put them on."

"What?" Haruhi said and raised an eyebrow, "Why? Are these yours?"

"Just do it," I said, reached for the glasses and handed them to her.

She accepted them and after examining them suspiciously for a moment she put them on. At first she just stared at me skeptical, but when she looked up and saw outside the window…

Her eyes widened behind the glasses, she reflexively stood up the instant she saw and stared out. After a while of staring her knees gave away and she fell down in her chair with her mouth gaping.

"What…" She murmured, completely stunned, "What…is that? Some kind of magic?"

"No," I said, "It's just technology…it's advanced, but it's really just…science."

"This…it's _amazing_," she said, completely mesmerized by what she was seeing, "just look at it, it's absolutely massive! And nobody can see it? This is so weird!"

"Yeah I guess it's sort of majestic…in its own ominous way," I said.

"Have you been keeping stuff like _this _from me!" She accused and pointed out the window, "this is exactly what I've been looking for! This is fantastic!"

"…you're insane," I murmured. Despite the slight annoyance, it's kind of nice to see her act this way again. More like herself. Even if it means her acting like…well, _herself._

"But what…" she said and turned her eyes to me., "What is this? What does it mean?"

"It means we're trapped."

She turned her attention back outside

"Trapped?" She repeated, "You mean we can't leave this…what do you call it…dome?"

"Sphere," I corrected, "and yes…We can't leave."

"Then what do we do?" She said and stared up at the sky.

"I…I honestly don't know…to be honest, this doesn't look good."

Haruhis gaze finally broke away from the window and she sat down again, leaned on the arm of my bed and glanced over the instruments showing my vital signs.

"You don't need to tell me that," she muttered crossly.

There was a brief silence after that. I put the glasses on again and took a better look at the sphere…it was still the same as before, huge and daunting.

"So these people have us trapped by…science?" Haruhi asked after a while.

"You can put it like that, yes…I need to talk to some people before I know what we can do about it but for now…we can't really do anything."

"I hate that," Haruhi muttered and resumed staring out the window, "just waiting around before was bad enough, but with something like this hanging over me…I'm not sure I'll be able to sleep!"

"Just have the doctor sedate you again," I helpfully suggested,

"What do you mean _again_?"

"…never mind."

"Okay…Anyway, how are you feeling?" Haruhi said absently a minute later, leaned back into her seat and picked the book she had been reading up from the floor, "think you'll be good to go soon?"

"I feel alright actually…I have this warm fuzzy feeling flowing though me," I said

Haruhi gave me a strange guarded look.

"It's probably the morphine," I said and shrugged.

A few minutes later the doctor joined us. He reviewed my vital signs and examined my stitches. Once he was done he insisted that Haruhi would sleep in a bed they had prepared for her in their guestroom instead of wearing out her back by sleeping in chairs yet again. She conceded once the Doctor assured her that I wouldn't slip back into a coma and he and Haruhi left. I guess that means tonight is the first night in a week that Haruhi and I don't share room together…now there's a strange thought.

As I was drifting of a familiar shape approached my bed.

"…Yuki?" I muttered surprised and half-asleep.

"There isn't much time, put on the glasses," Yuki said, reached for the glasses on the windowsill and handed them to me. Without giving it any thought I accepted the glasses and put them on. I glanced outside and then I saw it. The blue sphere was still there, but there were three bright lights moving through the city, each hastily going from window to window on its own far from the others, systematically entering every window of the surrounding skyscrapers quickly and efficiently.

"The Domain agents have detected my presence within their sphere. I have teleported copies of myself across multiple locations, we have a few minutes before the risk of them locating the primary instance of me becomes too great."

"I…see," I said and kept staring at these lights moving across the city. They really weren't wasting any time…"What happened? What is this?"

"The situation is more complex than it appears," Nagato said.

Hearing that phrase from her was enough to give me shudders...it looks plenty complex from where I'm standing.

"How so?" I asked, with a due sense of dread.

"This sphere is based on nanotechnology. According to our understanding of the Domain, they should not be capable of deploying such a sophisticated detection bubble," She said.

"…wait, what? What does that mean?" I said.

"It means that either the Domain has gained the ability to reverse engineer IDSE technology, or a faction within the IDSE gave them the technology or even deployed it for them."

"Can't you tell who did it?" I asked, I didn't think this sphere could possibly get more ominous but it's not the first time my expectations will have been completely blown away these past few days.

"With the distortions due to the global barrier, it's not possible to determine conclusively who deployed the bubble," Nagato said.

"…which would be better?" I asked.

"Both options have significant negative implications, " Nagato said, "if the Domain is capable of reverse engineering our technology with such proficiency the IDSE is at an greater disadvantage that previously though. If it was a faction within the IDSE then our internal conflicts have turned belligerent and an escalation is inevitable from there."

I swallowed. I swallowed hard. These far superior beings don't sound so different from your typical ambitious state...but what am I in that analogy? If we go by a warring states period analogy then I guess I'm a samurai sworn to a Daimyo that is simply cannot coexist with any of his neighbors. Add onto that the fact that honor prevents me from abandoning even a losing battle and becoming a ronin. Being a good guy is such an inconvenience sometimes. At the very least I'm headed for a spectacular end.

"Then…what's the next move?" I asked, hoping beyond hope she would have a clear answer, "Will the other interfaces join you in driving them off or…?"

"Bringing this bubble to the attention of more interfaces is inadvisable," Nagato said, "There is already distrust and tension between the factions. Bringing this to the attention of the whole of the IDSE with the inconclusive information I have now will add onto those. I must investigate this further before the IDSE can be notified of this."

"You mean we're on our own?" I asked.

"There are more IDSE interfaces located here, under orders to follow me. You must stay hidden while we investigate."

"And how do I do that?" I asked, letting a hint of the annoyance that was building up in me slip though. There's just nothing going my way these days…but I'm trying to hold back, I have no right to lash out at Nagato.

"The Doctor has connections to resourceful groups active in this area," Nagato said after a short silence, " ask him to set you up and arrange a meeting, they may be able to hide you long enough for me to conclude my investigation."

"But…why is it so important to find a definite answer?" I asked. I was still trying to hold back my anger but the idea of staying in this trap while the IDSE sorts out their differences is not appealing.

"No matter how the Domain obtained this technology, we must proceed with extreme caution. If it is a faction of the IDSE, we must get a decisive strike against them early on, and if the Domain can reverse engineer our technology, we must focus all our resources to shift ourselves over to different methods. Presenting the IDSE with inconclusive evidence and varying solutions will intensify the internal strife. Presenting them with indisputable evidence and a clear solution will result in effective action."

Well…there's a mouthful…

"The Domain agents are getting close," Nagato said.

I looked out the window. Indeed, the bright lights were combing through buildings considerably closer than before, just a few blocks away.

"Wait!" I yelled, "I'm still hurting here, how am I supposed to move like this?"

"Your injuries have mostly healed. Much of the pain you're feeling is due to the remaining medical nanites. They should leave your system soon, the pain will drop significantly once they do."

"I see…"

"I will teleport all remaining instances of me out of the sphere. The Domain agents can determine which instance of me is the primary one, but they cannot distinguish you from other humans. If they could, they would've already located you. They cannot find you unless you penetrate the bubble," She said, and with those parting word she disappeared into thin air. The lights stopped where they were floating, stood still in midair for a while and then slowly flew up and in a few moments they were leisurely circling around over the city, like vultures observing a starving herd.

I took of the glasses and stared at the empty night sky instead. Even if it was a lie, it was peaceful. I've had about all I can handle for now, and what's worse is that I'm beginning to think this will get worse before, and if, it gets better.


End file.
